FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Haitian doctor who was arrested in connection with last week’s assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse has longtime ties to South Florida.
Christian Emmanuel Sanon — who police say planned to install himself as Haiti’s president — has lived and owned businesses on Florida’s southeast and west coasts on and off for over two decades.
He has a number of close ties to South Florida, including multiple homes and businesses over the past two decades in communities such as Dania Beach, Wilton Manors and Boynton Beach, public records show.
Police officials in Haiti say Sanon played a critical role recruiting a Miami-based security company to carry out the assassination, the Miami Herald reported.
The Haitian National Police said they arrested Sanon and have evidence that ties him to the assassination in a statement they posted on Facebook late Sunday.
That statement, posted in Creole and translated to English, says that Sanon organized the operation that killed Moïse, that he tried to have himself installed as president and that he was the first person whom two of the other suspects called after they were arrested.
Born in the southeast Haitian commune of Marigot, Sanon recently traveled to Haiti by private plane, the national police said.
While investigators are still trying to piece together much of the connections between people alleged to be involved in Moïse’s assassination, Haiti National Police Chief Leon Charles said Sanon recruited that company who recruited people to carry out the killing, the Herald reported.
Sanon, 62, has lived in Dania Beach, Margate, Pompano Beach, Tampa and, most recently, Boynton Beach, among other places in Florida, New York and elsewhere, records show. One traffic ticket he received in Margate dates back to 1998.
He has also started businesses throughout South Florida. Many are no longer active, but a realty group registered to his home address in Boynton Beach and therapy company registered in West Palm Beach are both active, state records show.
Sanon does not have a license to practice medicine in Florida, according to Florida Department of Health records.
A YouTube account named DrChristianSanon that appears to belong to him has three videos from 2011 in which he appears to promote himself as a leader for Haiti.
In one of those videos, he decries unnamed Haitian and international leaders, saying they enjoy relative peace and prosperity in Haiti while many Haitians live in poverty.
“They cannot take it anymore,” Sanon says in the video. “They have no more hope in anybody. They have no hope in the international community.
“They see the international leaders come in and out,” he continues. “They’re flying in and out, they’re on the plane to Haiti, nobody knows what they’re doing. They see the leadership, all they do is drive beautiful cars. ... They enjoy life in Haiti. They go to the beach, they have all the beautiful houses, they have funds. So what happens to the rest of the people living in poverty? They’re discouraged. They have no hope.”
In that 2011 video, he says he will bring hope and change to Haitians. He said he travels to the Dominican Republic often and sees many fellow Haitians getting passports to travel to and eventually try moving there, to the U.S., Canada or France.
A Twitter account with the username @ChristianSanon, which also appears to belong to Sanon, describes him as “a Medical Doctor and Christian Minister who is providing Leadership for Haiti through a life of positive action and absolute integrity.” That account has not made a post since 2011.
The last tweet from the account says, “I am on my way to Haiti for a very important meeting. I will keep you informed of the process”
Records show he filed for bankruptcy in 2013.
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