Keegan Harricharan
Introduction
Keegan Harricharan, a 42-year-old Coral Springs, Florida, fundraiser and financier, was sentenced on July 23, 2026, to 20 years in federal prison for laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulently obtained COVID-19 relief funds that helped finance the plot to assassinate Haitian President Jovenel Moïse . U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra imposed the sentence after Harricharan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to engage in money laundering. The funds he moved came from Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan loans issued under the CARES Act, and prosecutors traced them directly into the machinery of a political assassination carried out in Port-au-Prince on July 7, 2021.
Background Information
Harricharan operated a South Florida company, TNR Holding Group Inc., which he agreed to use to receive and distribute fraud proceeds in support of the conspiracy . Beginning in June 2020, he worked with Jacob Israel to fraudulently obtain approximately 840,827 dollars in PPP loan proceeds, of which Israel and his associates received approximately 126,124 dollars in kickbacks. His co-conspirators in the wider plot were named by the Justice Department as Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla, James Junior Solages, Christian Emmanuel Sanon, and Jacob Israel. Four of them — Ortiz, Intriago, Veintemilla, and Solages — were convicted following a nine-week jury trial in May 2026; Sanon was expected to stand trial later in the year, and Israel had previously pleaded guilty to the same money laundering conspiracy and was scheduled to be sentenced in December.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Convicted and sentenced. Harricharan pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy and was sentenced to 20 years for laundering COVID relief funds that financed the Moïse assassination plot.
In April and May 2021, Harricharan met repeatedly in South Florida with members of the assassination conspiracy, where the participants discussed plans to remove President Moïse from power and install a new Haitian government — and discussed securing the funding, weapons, ammunition, personnel, and military equipment the operation would require . Between May 18 and May 28, 2021, approximately 175,000 dollars in PPP fraud proceeds and other funds were deposited into TNR Holding’s bank account; at his co-conspirators’ direction, Harricharan quickly transferred the money to Veintemilla, who redistributed it through a series of transactions to other members of the conspiracy. Between June 9 and June 10, 2021, he wired an additional 80,000 dollars, including EIDL loan proceeds, to Veintemilla for further distribution.
Weeks later, in the early morning hours of July 7, 2021, the conspiracy culminated: a team of Colombian mercenaries, financed in part through the laundered proceeds, entered the president’s residence in Port-au-Prince after exchanging gunfire with security personnel . The attackers fatally shot President Moïse multiple times and seriously wounded First Lady Martine Moïse while the couple’s children hid inside the home. The money Harricharan laundered — pandemic relief funds meant for small businesses — formed part of the financing trail prosecutors laid out from the relief applications to the mercenaries’ operation.
Public Reaction and Consequences
U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said, “This case is a stark reminder that financial crime is often the engine behind far more dangerous conduct,” adding, “This defendant did not simply commit fraud. He exploited pandemic relief programs meant to keep small businesses alive during a national crisis and laundered those stolen taxpayer funds to help advance a conspiracy that ended in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise” . He continued, “When fraud proceeds are funneled into political violence and bloodshed, the threat extends beyond financial loss to the stability of democratic institutions themselves. We will continue to follow the money, dismantle those networks, and ensure that those who finance violence face federal justice.”
The case was announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office with Special Agent in Charge Brett D. Skiles of the FBI Miami Field Office and Special Agent in Charge José R. Figueroa of HSI Miami, which investigated alongside the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sean T. McLaughlin, Jason Wu, and Altanese Phenelus prosecuted the case, which is part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative under Executive Order 14159.
Current Status
Harricharan, 42, is serving a 20-year federal sentence imposed by Judge Jacqueline Becerra on July 23, 2026 . His guilty plea to conspiracy to engage in money laundering resolved the government’s case against him personally, but the wider prosecution continues: Sanon’s trial was expected later in 2026, and Jacob Israel’s sentencing was scheduled for December. The convictions of Ortiz, Intriago, Veintemilla, and Solages in May followed the nine-week jury trial covering the plot’s financing and logistics. No parole exists in the federal system, and the 20-year term places Harricharan’s release in his early sixties.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Harricharan’s career as a fundraiser and financier ended in a sentencing hearing that framed him not as a pandemic-era fraudster but as the paymaster of an assassination . The 20-year term — 240 months for a money laundering conspiracy — reflects the government’s position that the funds he moved through TNR Holding bought weapons, personnel, and equipment for the team that killed a head of state. His name is now permanently attached to one of the most closely followed assassination prosecutions in the hemisphere, alongside the convicted co-conspirators, and the case stands as the Justice Department’s demonstration that CARES Act fraud can be prosecuted as terrorism financing when the proceeds bankroll political violence.
Sources
- DOJ press release, “Fundraiser Connected to Assassination of Haitian President Sentenced to 20 Years for Money Laundering Scheme,” U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida, July 23, 2026 source