28564: Hermantin(News)Elusive Haitian Arrested in Fraud Case

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Elusive Haitian Arrested in Fraud Case




By TOM HAYS
Associated Press Writer

July 7, 2006, 8:08 AM EDT



NEW YORK -- An elusive former strongman from Haiti, accused of sanctioning rape 
to silence dissent there in the early 1990s, has been arrested in a mortgage 
fraud scheme on Long Island, authorities said.

Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, 49, was scheduled to be arraigned Friday on charges 
of grand larceny, forgery and falsifying business records, said Robert 
Clifford, spokesman for the Suffolk County district attorney.

The indictment accuses Constant and five co-defendants of defrauding a bank out 
of more than $1 million.

"We're thrilled that he's in custody, and we're also concerned he's a flight 
risk," said Moira Feeney, an attorney with the San Francisco-based Center for 
Justice and Accountability, which brought a federal suit on behalf of three 
woman who claimed they were gang-raped in Haiti in the 1990s.

She said prosecutors want Constant held without bail based on his notorious 
history in his native land.

The district attorney's spokesman did not have a name for Constant's attorney, 
and there was no telephone listing for him in New York.

Constant emerged as the feared leader of a right-wing paramilitary group, the 
Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, after President Jean-Bertrand 
Aristide's presidency was toppled in 1991. Human rights groups say that between 
1991 and 1994, the group terrorized and slaughtered slum-dwellers loyal to 
Aristide.

In 1994, Constant slipped into the United States. He has been living in exile 
in New York, reportedly sometimes staying at the home of an aunt while working 
as a mortgage broker.

Despite a 1995 deportation order, he has been allowed to remain because Haiti's 
judicial system hasn't stabilized enough to ensure a fair trial.

A Haitian court convicted him absentia and sentenced him in 2000 to life in 
prison.

Lawyers for the women who claim they were gang-raped have asked a U.S. District 
Court judge to enter a default judgment against Constant. He was served a 
complaint in January 2005 but ignored it and hadn't even hired a lawyer, they 
said. A hearing is scheduled next month.
Copyright © 2006, The Associated Press