Overview:
Haiti’s government has agreed to pay Roger Stone’s firm $65,000 a month to advocate before the U.S. government under a one-year contract that could total $780,000.
Primary Category: Haiti
NEW YORK — The Haitian government has hired a firm headed by longtime Republican political operative and President Donald Trump’s confidant Roger Stone to advocate on its behalf before the U.S. government, according to federal lobbying disclosures and a contract filed with the U.S. Department of Justice last Wednesday.
The agreement between Haiti’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship and Stone’s Florida-based company, Drake Ventures LLC, calls for a $65,000 monthly retainer over a 12-month term, amounting to $780,000 if the agreement remains in effect for the full year.
The contract calls for payment in quarterly installments equivalent to three months of the monthly retainer, or $195,000. The contract, which was entered into on Sept. 2, states the first installment was due upon execution of the agreement. The Foreign Agents Registration Act filing, however, does not indicate whether Stone has received payment.
Under the agreement, Drake Ventures’ scope of services includes “issue advocacy on behalf of [Haiti] to the U.S. government” and work directly with Foreign Affairs Minister Raina Forbin.
The initial contract runs through Sept. 2, 2027, and automatically renews for additional one-year periods unless either party gives at least 30 days’ notice of termination.
The contract does not name any U.S. officials, agencies or members of Congress whom Stone is expected to lobby. It also does not identify specific issues Stone will advocate for or policy outcomes the Haitian government expects from the arrangement.
In Haiti, the contract has immediately drawn criticism, according to the Miami Herald. André Michel, a lawyer and political leader in the newly formed Coalition of Republican Forces (CFR), called the agreement “an absolute scandal.”
“This is an exorbitant amount for a country like Haiti. It’s a waste of public funds,” Michel, a staunch opponent of the slain President Jovenel Moïse, was quoted as saying.
Who is Roger Stone?
Stone is a longtime Republican political operative and diehard ally of Trump whose career has spanned decades of national politics.
In November 2019, a federal jury convicted Stone on seven felony counts stemming from a congressional investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. He was convicted of obstructing a congressional investigation, five counts of making false statements to Congress and witness tampering, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
A federal judge subsequently sentenced Stone to 40 months in prison, along with two years of supervised release and a $20,000 fine, according to Justice Department clemency records.
Stone did not serve that prison sentence.
On July 10, 2020, Trump commuted Stone’s sentence before he reported to prison. The White House said Stone had been treated unfairly and criticized the prosecution against him.
“Roger Stone is a victim of the Russia Hoax that the Left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years in an attempt to undermine the Trump Presidency,” White House officials said in a July 2020 statement. “There was never any collusion between the Trump Campaign, or the Trump Administration, with Russia. Such collusion was never anything other than a fantasy of partisans unable to accept the result of the 2016 election.”
Five months later, on Dec. 23, Trump granted Stone a full and unconditional pardon.
Stone is the latest figure with ties to Trump’s political orbit to take on work for the Haitian government.
Haiti has also turned to Vectus Global, a private security company led by Blackwater founder Erik Prince, to assist with operations against armed groups. Prince, a Trump supporter, has said his company signed a longer-term contract with the Haitian government [worth millions of dollars] that includes security operations and, eventually, assistance with revenue collection.
“One key measure of success for me will be when you can drive from Port-au-Prince to Cap Haitian in a thin-skinned vehicle and not be stopped by gangs,” Prince said in an August 2025 interview with Reuters.
His company, Vectus Global, has operated in Haiti since March 2025. In 2010, he sold his Blackwater after employees were convicted of “ unlawfully killing 14 unarmed civilians while escorting a U.S. embassy convoy in Baghdad’s Nisour Square,” Reuters reported. “The men were pardoned by Trump during his first term in the White House.”
