In a landmark ruling that closes another chapter in the investigation into the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, a U.S. federal judge sentenced 42-year-old Florida resident Keegan Harricharan to two decades in federal prison on July 23, 2026. The sentence comes after Harricharan pleaded guilty to running a pandemic relief fraud scheme that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund the plot that killed the Haitian leader.
According to official announcements from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, Harricharan, a resident of Coral Springs, orchestrated a fraudulent scheme to obtain more than $840,000 in U.S. Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans—federal funding designed to keep small businesses afloat amid the widespread economic disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than using the funds for the intended purpose, Harricharan diverted the taxpayer money to support a conspiracy to overthrow Haiti’s elected government, a plan that culminated in the July 2021 assassination of President Moïse by a team of mercenary commandos.
Prosecutors detailed that Harricharan leveraged his private company, TNR Holding Group Inc., as a front to receive the fraudulent PPP funds and distribute the money to other co-conspirators involved in the assassination plot. Court documents and official statements confirm that Harricharan actively collaborated with his co-accused to coordinate every critical logistical step of the operation, from sourcing additional financing to acquiring weapons, ammunition, military equipment, and recruiting personnel to carry out the attack.
“This defendant did more than just commit fraud,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones emphasized in an official statement following the sentencing. “He exploited pandemic relief programs designed to support struggling small businesses during a national crisis and laundered those taxpayer-funded funds to contribute to a plot that resulted in the assassination of the Haitian president.”
Harricharan’s sentencing marks the latest conviction in the U.S. investigation into Moïse’s assassination. Last May, a federal jury in Miami found four of Harricharan’s alleged accomplices—Arcángel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla, and James Solages—guilty of conspiracy and murder-related charges for their roles in the plot. With Harricharan’s conviction, a total of nine people have now been found guilty in U.S. federal court for their connections to the high-profile assassination that sent Haiti into a years-long period of political instability and chaos.