Anti-corruption unit accuses ex-President of hiding millions, undeclared bank accounts, and phantom real estate in scathing 2025 report
Port-au-Prince, Haiti – December 9, 2025 Haiti’s Unité de Lutte Contre la Corruption (ULCC) has formally called for former President Michel Joseph Martelly to face criminal prosecution for systematically falsifying his mandatory asset declarations during and after his 2011-2016 presidency.
In a devastating executive summary released Sunday, December 8, the ULCC concluded that Martelly’s sworn financial disclosures — both when he entered office in May 2011 and when he finally filed his exit declaration in January 2018 (two years late) — were “incomplete, inconsistent, and deliberately misleading.”
The report recommends that the government commissioner immediately open a criminal case for false declaration of false patrimony, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison, heavy fines, and permanent disqualification from public office.
A Fortune That Doesn’t Add Up
Investigators found:
- The 2011 entry declaration was undated, improperly notarized, and omitted at least eleven bank accounts that later surfaced with substantial balances in Haitian financial institutions.
- Real estate worth more than US$1 million listed in 1992 mysteriously disappeared from records by 2016 with no sale documents or explanation.
- Luxury vehicles registered in 2011 vanished from the 2018 filing without proof of sale.
- New high-end vehicles appeared mid-presidency with no traceable income source to justify the purchases.
- Payments from the Ministry of Economy and Finance to First Lady Sophia Saint-Rémy Martelly — totaling tens of thousands of dollars — were never declared as indirect assets.
- Income from international performances as “Sweet Micky,” conference appearances, and other private ventures? Zero contracts, zero tax records, zero disclosure.
“These are not clerical errors,” the ULCC report states. “They represent a pattern of deliberate concealment that erodes public trust and violates every transparency law on the books.”
From Sweet Micky to Sanctioned Figure
Martelly has been under intensifying international scrutiny:
- Canada sanctioned him in November 2022 for money laundering and human-rights abuses.
- The United States followed in August 2024, accusing him of using gangs to traffic cocaine into the U.S. and laundering proceeds through the same armed groups that now control much of Port-au-Prince.
- A January 2024 Haitian arrest warrant linked him to the theft of heavy machinery from the National Center of Equipment.
Martelly’s legal team has repeatedly called the accusations “politically motivated lies” and vowed to fight them in court.
A Test for Haiti’s Justice System
The ULCC’s recommendation now lands on the desk of Port-au-Prince’s government commissioner, who must decide whether to file formal charges. In a country where powerful figures have historically enjoyed near-total impunity, many Haitians are watching to see if the judiciary finally has the courage to act.
Civil society group Ensemble contre la Corruption, which first triggered the probe in 2024, hailed the report as “a victory for transparency” but warned that “the real battle begins now — making sure the file doesn’t disappear into a drawer.”
As Haiti reels from gang violence, political paralysis, and economic collapse, the ULCC’s findings serve as a stark reminder: the roots of today’s chaos were fertilized years ago by leaders who treated public office as a personal ATM.
Will Sweet Micky finally face the music he spent a lifetime making?
L’Union Suite will keep you updated as this case moves (or doesn’t move) through Haiti’s courts.
