U.S. firm paid into Aristide account, suit alleges
Sunday, November 21, 2004 at 02:27AM
TheSpook
A dismissed U.S. telephone company executive is alleging that his
bosses agreed to make payments to the ''private bank account'' of
former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in a deal with Haiti's
state-owned phone company, Teleco. The allegation surfaced in a
wrongful dismissal lawsuit filed in federal court in New Jersey by Palm
Beach County resident D. Michael Jewett against IDT Corp. of Newark.
Aristide was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Miami attorney
Ira Kurzban, who represents Aristide, told The Herald the former
president ''was never involved in any illegal dealings concerning
Teleco or any other matter.'' He said Jewett ``is commenting about a
rumor he heard someone else say. These kinds of rumors have no
credibility.'' Jewett acknowledged in an interview with The Herald that
he has no hard evidence to back up his allegations and that they are
based on comments he heard from IDT's executive vice president for
international business development, Jack Lerer. [more
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