ICE agents arrest one of Haiti's most powerful and wealthy businessmen on US soil

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Federal immigration agents have arrested Dimitri Vorbe, one of Haiti’s most powerful businessmen and the latest elite figure from the troubled Caribbean country to be detained on U.S. soil.

Vorbe was in custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday, according to online records. He was being held at Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami.

It wasn’t immediately clear why Vorbe was arrested or if he faces any charges. A search for court records in Florida on Tuesday showed no formal charges. An ICE spokesperson did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

His arrest comes two months after ICE agents in Florida arrested Réginald Boulos, a businessman, doctor and former Haitian presidential hopeful. Authorities have accused Boulos of supporting violent gangs in Haiti that the U.S. government has deemed terrorist groups.

“With the arrests of Boulos and Vorbe, you are seeing a strata of Haitian society touched in their places of exile,” said Michael Deibert, author of “Notes From the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti,” and “Haiti Will Not Perish: A Recent History.”

“A message is being sent to the upper echelon of Haiti’s political and economic elite that they’re not untouchable anymore,” he said.

Vorbe and his family own Société Générale d’Énergie S.A, a private power company that was one of the biggest suppliers of electricity to Haiti’s state-owned company.

The Vorbe family also was known for securing major government construction projects for the building of roads and other infrastructure under former President René Préval.

“They were getting lots of money from the state,” said Jake Johnston, international research director at the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research. “Both Boulos and Dimitri Vorbe were the two members of the elite, the oligarchs that Jovenel went after.”

In 2020, the administration of slain former President Jovenel Moïse seized Vorbe’s power company following accusations of corruption.

“There is not much love lost in Haiti either for Dimitri Vorbe or Réginald Boulos, or many of the elite families,” Johnston said of the arrests. “Many people will cheer it in a country with a broken judicial system as it’s some sliver of accountability, (but) we don’t know what any of this is for. … How does this all fit together into a strategy that actually benefits Haiti?”

Vorbe was taken into custody a day after the U.S. government designated two former Haitian public officials who were close to the Vorbe family for involvement in “significant corruption” while in office.

The designation against Arnel Belizaire, a former member of Haiti’s Chamber of Deputies, and Antonio Cheramy, a former senator, means that they and their immediate family are “generally ineligible” to enter the U.S.

“The U.S. government will remain relentless in pursuing those supporting terrorist gangs through indictments, arrests, sanctions, arms seizures and other immigration restrictions,” Christopher Landau, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of State, said Monday.

The Vorbe family is not only economically powerful, but politically as well.

Joel “Pacha” Vorbe is a member of the powerful Fanmi Lavalas political party, while an attorney for the Vorbe’s power company was appointed minister of justice in recent years. He later resigned and was sanctioned by Canada’s government.

Some elite families in Haiti have long been accused of financing and working with gangs that control 90% of the capital Port-au-Prince, with gang violence surging in recent years.