![]() unit that investigates money laundering.Īs a senator, Mr. But under Canadian regulations, the purchase should have raised a red flag, said Garry Clement, the former head of an R.C.M.P. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the national police force, said it could not disclose whether it was also investigating the transaction. With outrage brewing, the Haitian government’s Anti-Corruption Unit launched an investigation into the purchase of the Célestin home in Canada in February. Célestin’s business empire on the ground in Haiti differed greatly from the image he painted. Referring to his critics, he added: “I don’t have to be scared of a bunch of vagabonds, bastards and criminals.”īut the traces of Mr. “I came from nowhere, and I became who I am with no support,” he said. He is now a member of the assassinated president’s Bald Head Haitian party. Célestin said he began his business career by importing products in a rented truck, sometimes sleeping on the sacks of sugar and flour he was shuttling. Célestin said.Ī son of farmers who grew up in a rural area, Mr. “I don’t have to justify myself, I’m sick of having to do it,” Mr. He gave his wife, Marie Louisa Célestin, the money to buy the mansion in late 2020, he said, so that she and their children could enjoy the “social advantages” of living in Canada. Célestin, 46, said he amassed his wealth in farming, importing and other legitimate businesses that earned him millions of dollars a month. Transparency International, the anticorruption monitor, ranked Haiti 170th out of 180 countries for perceived levels of corruption in 2020 - tied with North Korea. ![]() Célestin have been accused of enriching themselves while failing to provide the country with even the most basic services. ![]() Armed gangs control many areas, poverty and hunger are rising and officials like Mr. The lower house of Parliament is entirely vacant, and the head of the nation’s highest court died of Covid-19 in June.ĭespite billions of dollars in reconstruction aid after a devastating earthquake in 2010, the country has not rebuilt, and many contend it is worse off. The terms of the other 20 expired, and new elections were never called. Only 10 senators out of 30 remain in Parliament. Célestin could help play a pivotal role in the nation’s future. “Haiti is a poor country where people are dying of hunger, and here you have rich people trying to take their money out of the country and buying mansions in cash,” said Frantz André, a leading Haitian human rights advocate in Montreal, who has led protests outside the Haitian consulate in recent months.īecause Haiti, a country of 11 million people, has so few functioning institutions, Mr. Anger over the mansion became so pitched that some members of Montreal’s Haitian community hid in the bushes around the home in Laval, an affluent suburb, and sneaked onto the grounds, hoping to confront Mr. His lawyer declined to provide details about his businesses with the anticorruption inquiry in Haiti underway. Some appear to operate on a much smaller scale than he claimed, if at all in some cases. Célestin cites as the source of his great wealth. But The Times found little or no indication in Haiti of the thriving businesses that Mr.
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