Two ships have been caught up in a dispute being pursued in US courts between a well-connected Haitian company and the country’s government.
Preble-Rish Haiti — a firm with strong ties to the Haitian president and his predecessor — chartered more than a dozen product tankers last year to deliver diesel, jet fuel and gasoline to the Caribbean country under a government contract, according to papers filed this month in two US federal courts.
But the deal fell apart over a matter of months, according to the documents. Preble-Rish has argued that it is owed $27.3m, as it looks for security ahead of arbitration in New York against the government and Haiti's Bureau de Monetisation de Programmes d’Aide au Developpement (BMPAD).
“It made commercial sense not to have disputes decided in Haiti, where the government has complete control of the courts. Rather, it was critically important that [Preble-Rish] have a neutral and sophisticated international trade forum, such as New York, to hear all disputes involving the contracts,” the company's lawyers said in the complaints.
“[Preble-Rish] would not have agreed to the contracts without the arbitration clause.”
One lawsuit in the Southern District of New York seeks to garnish BMPAD funds held at Citibank, while another in the Southern District of Texas seeks to seize funds at BB Energy USA.
The shipments began in May 2020, but it was not until October that the government allegedly began defaulting on payments, lawyers claim in the documents.
Preble-Rish claimed that, already owed millions of dollars, it told the government on 7 October that it would not allow any ships to discharge before receiving full payment.
A week later, Sea World Management & Trading's 50,000-dwt Aquila L (built 2018) was ready to enter port and discharge but did not call at Port-au-Prince until 22 October on Preble-Rish's orders.
The next day, the charterer ordered the ship to stop discharging.
The lawsuit said the government obtained a court order granting it a lien on the Aquila L and the right to complete delivery. It resumed discharge operations on 28 October.
At the same time, the 50,000-dwt SM Osprey (built 2017) was laden with diesel fuel and ready to deliver but never ended up calling in Haiti.
Preble-Rish was reportedly the recipient of millions of dollars in government contracts from the administrations of former president Michel Martelly and current President Jovenel Moise.
Chief executive Josue Leconte was implicated in a 2019 incident involving US-based private security contractors arrested near Haiti's central bank and held for three days.
An investigation by the Center for Economic & Policy Research found that Leconte, who signed court documents stating he was still head of Preble-Rish, met the seven contractors at the Port-au-Prince airport in February 2019.
One of the contractors told the Associated Press he was hired to provide security for Leconte. A second told The Intercept he was brought on to escort a presidential aide to the bank to transfer cash from government accounts to Moise.
Blank Rome lawyers representing Preble-Rish did not respond to requests for comment.
BMPAD did not return calls and emails seeking comment.
