On October 25, 2011, Joel Esquenazi, the former president of Terra Telecommunications Corp. (“Terra”), and Carlos Rodriguez, former executive vice president of Terra, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jose E. Martinez in the Southern District of Florida. Mr. Esquenazi was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in a scheme to pay bribes to Haitian government officials at Haiti Teleco, which was, according to the government, a state–owned telecommunications company. This is the longest sentence ever imposed in a case involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Mr. Rodriguez was sentenced to 84 months in prison for his role in the events. The defendants were also ordered to forfeit $3.09 million.
The DOJ’s Lanny Breuer called the 15 year sentence “a stark reminder to executives that bribing government officials to secure business advantages is a serious crime with serious consequences. . . .As today’s sentence shows, we will continue to hold accountable individuals and companies who engage in such corruption.”
For more information regarding this case, see our previous post: http://fcpaenforcement.com/documents/document_detail.asp?ID=8424&PAGE=2
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