MIAMI, Florida — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has detained Dimitri Vorbe, one of Haiti’s most powerful and controversial businessmen, marking the latest move by American authorities against members of Haiti’s political and economic elite.
According to online detention records, Vorbe was being held Tuesday at the Krome North Service Processing Centerin Miami. ICE has not disclosed the reason for his arrest, and as of Tuesday, no criminal charges had been filed in Florida courts. An ICE spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Vorbe and his family own Société Générale d’Énergie S.A. (Sogener), once one of Haiti’s largest private electricity providers. The Vorbe family was also known for winning lucrative government contracts for roads and infrastructure projects during the presidency of René Préval.
In 2020, then-President Jovenel Moïse — who was assassinated in 2021 — accused Vorbe and other elites of corruption and seized control of Sogener. The episode underscored deep tensions between Haiti’s oligarchs and the government, with Moïse claiming the power sector was draining state resources.
“Both Boulos and Dimitri Vorbe were the two members of the elite, the oligarchs that Jovenel went after,” noted Jake Johnston, international research director at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Vorbe’s arrest comes just two months after ICE agents in Florida detained another powerful Haitian figure, businessman and former presidential candidate Réginald Boulos. U.S. authorities have accused Boulos of providing financial support to violent gangs in Haiti — groups the U.S. government has formally designated as terrorist organizations.
“With the arrests of Boulos and Vorbe, you are seeing a strata of Haitian society touched in their places of exile,” said Michael Deibert, author of Notes From the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti. “A message is being sent to the upper echelon of Haiti’s political and economic elite that they’re not untouchable anymore.”
Reactions in Haiti to Vorbe’s detention were mixed. Many citizens, frustrated by years of corruption and impunity among political and business elites, have welcomed the arrests as a rare sign of accountability.
“There is not much love lost in Haiti either for Dimitri Vorbe or Réginald Boulos, or many of the elite families,” Johnston said. “Many people will cheer it in a country with a broken judicial system as it’s some sliver of accountability, [but] we don’t know what any of this is for. How does this all fit together into a strategy that actually benefits Haiti?”
Vorbe’s arrest came just a day after the U.S. government imposed sanctions on two former Haitian officials with ties to his family. Former deputy Arnel Belizaire and ex-senator Antonio Cheramy were designated for “significant corruption,” making them and their immediate families ineligible to enter the United States.
“The U.S. government will remain relentless in pursuing those supporting terrorist gangs through indictments, arrests, sanctions, arms seizures, and other immigration restrictions,” said Christopher Landau, Deputy Secretary at the U.S. Department of State.
For now, Vorbe’s future remains uncertain as ICE has not disclosed whether he faces deportation, charges, or continued detention. His arrest, however, deepens the sense that Washington is tightening its grip on Haitian elites who have long escaped accountability at home.
