Joseph Baptiste, a United States citizen, is a retired U.S. Army colonel who currently resides in Maryland
Roger Richard Boncy is a dual United States and Haitian citizen who works as a tourism and jobs promoter, and currently resides in Madrid, Spain.
According to the indictment, Baptiste and Boncy solicited bribes from undercover FBI agents (“Agents”) who were posing as potential investors in a project to develop a port in Haiti. The DOJ alleges that Baptiste told the Agents at a meeting in Boston that he could make the payments to the Haitian officials through a non-profit he controlled. In exchange for the payments the Haitian officials would approve the port project. The DOJ alleges that Boncy played a role in corresponding with the Agents as part of this scheme, both in emails and meetings with the Agents together with Baptiste. The Agents wired Baptiste’s non-profit approximately $50,000 to make the supposed bribes, but Baptiste allegedly used the money for personal purposes instead of making the bribe.
On October 4, 2017, the DOJ filed a three-count Information against Baptiste, and, in a superseding indictment filed on October 30, 2018, added Boncy, alleging one count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, including Travel Act and FCPA violations, one count of violating the Travel Act, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
At trial, the jury convicted Baptiste on all charges. The jury found Boncy guilty of one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA, but acquitted him in the money laundering and Travel Act charges. On August 26, 2019, Baptiste filed a motion for a new trial on the basis of ineffective assistance of counsel and for a judgment of acquittal, and, relatedly, Boncy moved for the same on September 4, 2019.
Baptiste argued in his motion for a new trial that his counsel’s representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness. His counsel had no criminal experience, did not review the bulk of the material the government provided, including important recordings and trial exhibits, failed to subpoena witnesses, pursued a defense that was not available to the defendant, and allowed counsel for Boncy to cross examine the government’s witnesses—despite the fact that Boncy’s trial strategy was to portray Baptiste as the primary driver of the alleged conspiracy.
On March 11, 2020, the court issued a memorandum and order granting Baptiste’s motion for a new trial based on the ineffective assistance of counsel. The court also granted Boncy’s motion for a new trial based on the prejudice he experienced due to the trial counsel’s ineffective assistance to his co-defendant. The status of the new trial is currently pending.