South Florida Man To Spend 20 Years In Jail For Laundering COVID Relief Money That Helped Kill Haiti President 

News Americas, CORAL SPRINGS, FL, Fri. July 24, 2026: A Coral Springs man was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison Thursday for laundering fraudulently obtained pandemic relief funds that helped finance the 2021 assassination of Haiti President Jovenel Moise. U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra handed down the sentence in Miami federal court after Keegan Harricharan, 42, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida announced.

Prosecutors said Harricharan and a co-conspirator, Jacob Israel, fraudulently obtained roughly $840,827 in Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan funds issued under the CARES Act, beginning in June 2020, with Israel and associates pocketing about $126,124 in kickbacks. Harricharan ran a Coral Springs company called TNR Holding Group Inc., which prosecutors say he used to move the fraud proceeds toward the assassination plot.

During the spring of 2021, Harricharan met repeatedly with members of the conspiracy in South Florida, where the group discussed funding, weapons, ammunition and personnel for the operation, according to court records. Between May 18 and May 28, 2021, about $175,000 in fraud proceeds landed in the TNR Holding bank account; Harricharan quickly wired the money to co-defendant Walter Veintemilla for distribution to other plotters. Weeks later, in early June, he wired another $80,000, including EIDL funds, through the same pipeline.

U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida said the case shows how financial crime can fuel far more dangerous plots, saying Harricharan helped funnel stolen taxpayer money into a conspiracy that ultimately ended in bloodshed and political violence.

On July 7, 2021, a team of Colombian mercenaries entered Moise’s private residence in Port-au-Prince and exchanged gunfire with security guards. The attackers shot and killed Moise, 53, and wounded First Lady Martine Moise, while the couple’s children hid inside the home during the attack. The killing plunged Haiti into what has become years of continued political and security turmoil.

Harricharan’s sentencing is the latest in a yearslong prosecution spanning Miami federal court. Four other defendants in the case were convicted at trial in May. A fifth defendant is scheduled for trial later this year, and a sixth, who pleaded guilty, awaits sentencing in December. Previous sentences in the broader case have included life imprisonment for former Haitian Sen. John Joel Joseph, Haitian-Chilean national Rodolphe Jaar, and Colombian ex-army officer Germán Alejandro Rivera García, all convicted or pleaded guilty to roles in the plot to kidnap or kill Moise.

NewsAmericasNow will continue following developments in the ongoing prosecution of those responsible for the assassination of Haiti’s former president.