Pierre Ricot Odney<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\nDue process observed in investigation<\/h4>\n
The judicial order notes that all parties involved were given the opportunity to present their observations and arguments following the submission of the investigative report.<\/p>\n
The case now moves to the criminal court stage, where the accused will have to respond to the charges in full.<\/p>\n
Ronald Andr\u00e9<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Investigating judge orders criminal trial An investigating judge in Port-au-Prince has ordered the referral of former Director General of the Caisse d\u2019Assistance Sociale (CAS), Edwine Tonton, and former accountant Pierre Richard Val\u00e8s to the criminal court. In his ruling issued on March 9, 2026, Judge Jeudilien Fanfan determined that sufficient evidence exists to justify a trial without a jury, under Haiti\u2019s criminal procedure framework. Allegations of corruption and illicit enrichment According to the judicial order, Edwine Tonton faces charges including: Illegal taking of interests Illicit enrichment These charges are based on Haiti\u2019s anti-corruption law of March 12, 2014. The judge alleges that Tonton held interests in two companies \u2014 PROMASA and DELMAX DISTRIBUTION \u2014 which reportedly secured public contracts to supply electronic equipment and office materials to state institutions. These contracts are said to involve the Ministry of Interior and Territorial Communities (MICT) and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MCI). Abuse of trust and misappropriation claims The ruling also cites evidence suggesting abuse of trust involving the organization OCHAN-HAITI. Investigators allege that a subsidy check issued by the CAS to the organization was misappropriated by the former director. The case is part of a broader investigation into alleged financial misconduct causing harm to the Haitian state. Multiple defendants referred in the case In addition to Tonton and Val\u00e8s, several other individuals have been referred to criminal court, including: Dominique Hector Bernardin Mission Saint-Jules Djennie Pierre Archile They face charges such as: Abuse of trust Complicity in abuse of trust Forgery and use of forged documents Criminal association Previous provisional release does not halt proceedings Although Edwine Tonton and Pierre Richard Val\u00e8s were granted provisional release on humanitarian grounds by the Court of Appeal on August 21, 2024, the legal proceedings have continued. That decision had raised significant public concern at the time, but the latest ruling confirms that both individuals remain subject to prosecution. Some defendants cleared of charges The judge also ruled to dismiss charges against certain individuals initially implicated in the case, including former Minister of Social Affairs Pierre Ricot Odney. Due process observed in investigation The judicial order notes that all parties involved were given the opportunity to present their observations and arguments following the submission of the investigative report. The case now moves to the criminal court stage, where the accused will have to respond to the charges in full. Ronald Andr\u00e9<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":31184,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"4","parallax":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"topbottom","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":"An investigating judge finds sufficient evidence to send former social assistance officials to trial over alleged corruption, fraud, and abuse of trust."},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_post_split":{"post_split":[{"template":"1","tag":"h2","numbering":"asc","mode":"normal","first":"0","enable_toc":"0","toc_type":"normal"}]},"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3259,3220],"tags":[4029,3463,4054,3484,4899],"class_list":["post-31181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-haiti","category-national","tag-corruption","tag-haiti","tag-justice","tag-law","tag-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lequotidien509.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/images-12.webp?fit=576%2C327&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lequotidien509.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lequotidien509.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lequotidien509.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lequotidien509.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lequotidien509.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lequotidien509.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31185,"href":"https:\/\/lequotidien509.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31181\/revisions\/31185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lequotidien509.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lequotidien509.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lequotidien509.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lequotidien509.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}