September 25, 2025
Another prominent Haitian businessman is in ICE custody on claims of corruption and supporting terroristic gangs.
Another prominent Haitian businessman has been taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on claims of supporting terrorist gangs.
On Sept. 23, Dimitri Vorbe, one of Haiti’s most influential businessmen, was arrested outside his home in Miami, Florida, and taken to the Krome North Service Processing Center, the Miami Herald reports. His arrest comes two months after Réginald Boulos, a businessman, physician, and former Haitian presidential candidate, was detained by ICE agents in Florida on allegations of aiding violent gangs in Haiti that the U.S. has designated as terrorist organizations.
“The U.S. government will remain relentless in pursuing those supporting terrorist gangs through indictments, arrests, sanctions, arms seizures and other immigration restrictions,” Christopher Landau, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of State, said a day before Vorbe’s arrest.
Vorbe and his family control Société Générale d’Énergie S.A., a private energy firm that was once among the largest electricity suppliers to Haiti’s state-owned utility. His arrest came just one day after the U.S. government sanctioned two former Haitian officials with close ties to the Vorbe family for engaging in “significant corruption” while in office.
The sanctions against Arnel Belizaire, a former Chamber of Deputies member, and Antonio Cheramy, a former senator, deem them and their immediate families “generally ineligible” to enter the United States. These actions contribute to a rising number of visa cancellations targeting Haiti’s economic elite under the Trump administration. In recent weeks, several businessmen have been barred from boarding U.S.-bound flights or denied entry upon arrival at Miami International Airport.
“With the arrests of Boulos and Vorbe, you are seeing a strata of Haitian society touched in their places of exile,” said Michael Deibert, author of “Notes From the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti,” and “Haiti Will Not Perish: A Recent History.”
“A message is being sent to the upper echelon of Haiti’s political and economic elite that they’re not untouchable anymore,” he added.
The Vorbe family was also known for winning major government contracts to build roads and other infrastructure under former President René Préval. In 2020, the administration of slain President Jovenel Moïse seized Vorbe’s power company amid corruption allegations, sparking mixed reactions in Haiti to his recent arrest.
“There is not much love lost in Haiti either for Dimitri Vorbe or Réginald Boulos, or many of the elite families,” said Jake Johnston, international research director at the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research. “Many people will cheer it in a country with a broken judicial system as it’s some sliver of accountability, (but) we don’t know what any of this is for. … How does this all fit together into a strategy that actually benefits Haiti?”
