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# CONTINUATION OF DISPATCHHit-2005 (cont)principal officer in Charles' bank when the bank was opened in 1900 with Charles as president was an american citizen in the savings and loan business named LILLIS (fnu), who was later indicted, convicted & jailed in the United States for using the mails to defraud. Another original partner of the bank, one Gerald F. Connolly from Chicago, Illinois has a criminal record and various jail sentences and convictions. Neither LILLIS or Connolly are currently signatories to the bank, nor partners. The bank is reported to have a very poor portfolio of loans since, according to rumor, the loans have been made to government officials on the basis of their signature and without proper collateral. Besides the bank, he is also full or part owner of several other industrial and commercial enterprises in Haiti and is the sole representative in Haiti of the General Electric Co., Ltd., London and the Siemens Schukert Werke, Germany. He is Director of Fort Concession (after Mohammed Fayed departed) and also took over the oil refinery concession which originally belonged to Valentine. (Now involved in litigation with AID over their investment guarantee.)2. Charles is President of the Chamber of Commerce, and also belongs to several other commercial and civic organizations including the Committee for the Rehabilitation of Rural Sections of Haiti, the International Club of Commerce of Haiti, the Commerce and Industry Association of New York, and the Rotary Club. (According to a report of March 1967, he was dropped from the last club in 1966 for non-attendance.)3. In March 1967 he was forced to give up his interest in a number of smaller concerns (Sonatrugo, Haitian Tobacco, Haitian International Leather, etc.) but retained his monopoly of the insurance business and the bank as well as his individually-owned export-import business.4. Although it is obvious that Clemard Joseph Charles has been a favorite of President Duvalier, the recent changes in his financial empire indicate a loss of trust. The economy is in such a poor shape that Charles is not making as much out of his enterprises and the money and credit squeeze is hitting him as well as the rest of the more honest businessmen in Haiti. As symbols of past favor Charles has been decorated with the Order of Petion and Bolivar (Commander), the Order of Agricultural Merit (Commander), Knight of the National Order "Honor and Merit", Officer of the Labor Order, and Commander of the Civil Merit Order.5. One well-informed high United States official reported in early 1963 that Charles was a "slippery character" but that some doubt existed concerning his importance or political significance within the regime. A few months after this estimate was made, Charles conversed with a US Embassy official. Throughout their talk he showed an obvious desire to demonstrate his total political disinterest in the past while simultaneously hinting that he could become a political figure in the near future. He made guarded statements about the Duvalier regime, unhesitatingly giving the impression that he was the President's friend, both through desire and necessity, but that he definitely did not agree with some of the government's policies. He attributed his support of the current government to the fact that it would be dangerous for a Haitian to withhold it. The following month (May 1963), on a business trip to the United States, Charles told a former US Journalist that he was in a position to become head of a provisional government after Duvalier was removed from the scene. He expressed a belief that the President was ready to institute a reign of terror and that he was willing to accept Soviet aid. In the opinion of the Journalist, Charles firmly believed that this was the last chance for the United States to help establish a democratic Haiti, friendly toward the United States, and save the country from a Castro-type Communist takeover. Charles also said that although he was on good terms with the President, he felt /continued/