Anti-corruption investigators in Haiti are asking the justice system to pursue criminal charges against three members of the country’s newly formed ruling presidential council and a former bank director who accused the men of shaking him down for more than $750,000 in bribes to keep his job at a state-owned commercial bank.

Haiti’s Anti-Corruption Unit is also accusing Transitional Presidential Council Smith Augustin, Louis Gérald Gilles and Emmanuel Vertilaire — and their accuser, Raoul Pascal Pierre-Louis — of abusing their functions as senior representatives of the Haitian government and engaging in corruption.

The long-awaited report, released publicly on Wednesday, says that the members of the presidential panel and an associate, who was present when a secret meeting was held with Pierre-Louis in May over his future with the bank, had each received pre-approved credit cards outside of the law and the bank’s own protocols.

The cards, each with a generous limit of $20,000, were given to each of the three council members while a collaborator, Lonick Leandre, received a card with a $12,500 limit, the report said. The investigators accused each of being irresponsible in their management of the cards.

For example, they note that the holders of the card had either failed to make payments or paid late, and at one point the bank, the National Bank of Credit, or BNC, had blocked Smith’s card.

The investigative unit implies that the cards were given by Pierre-Louis in lieu of the bribe in order to keep his job, which constitutes bribery and corruption.

“Issuance of these credit cards was directly and personally decided by Mr. Raoul Pascal Pierre-Louis as part of the discussions initiated for his renewal at the head of the board of directors of the BNC outside of all regularities and administrative requirements,” the report said. “In this way, Mr. Raoul Pascal Pierre-Louis … abuses his function and is guilty of paying … and active corruption.”

By accepting Pierre-Louis’ offer, the investigative unit said, Augustin, Vertilaire and Gilles “have abused their function and are guilty of paying bribes and corruption.”

Both Pierre-Louis and his lawyer, Sonet Saint-Louis, discredited the report and said it failed to look at the larger allegation, that the council members demanded 100 million gourdes, or the equivalent of $758,000, from Pierre-Louis to retain his post as BNC’s director. Soon after the accusations leaked, Pierre-Louis was fired by Prime Minister Garry Conille, who defended the decision in a Herald interview saying that the banker’s term had expired and the bank was the subject of a takeover by Haiti’s Central Bank.

“The message being sent here from the government is very discouraging because everyone who denounces corruption in the public administration now knows they will be fired and they will be delivered to the corruptors and after that they will not denounce anyone,” Saint-Louis said.

Pierre-Louis, the lawyer said, is the victim but is being treated as the perpetrator of a crime.

“All of the rules of the National Bank of Credit were respected; the council members made the request and signed their applications for their credit cards,” Saint-Louis said. “Raoul Pierre-Louis did not participate in traffic in influence or corruption.”

Pierre-Louis is open, the lawyer said, to cooperating with an investigative judge as long as measures are taken to secure his safety.

It is now up to a prosecutor to decide whether the report should be forwarded to an investigative judge. But critics are calling for the accused council members to step down.

Their continued presence on the council, which is supposed to help return stability to Haiti through the organization of presidential and legislative elections next year, endangers the credibility of the process, said attorney Samuel Madistin. A former presidential candidate and well known criminal lawyer, Madistin believes the accused council members should not be allowed to be replaced by the sectorsof Haitian society that put them on the entity.

“Morally, they cannot stay on the council,” he said. “If they are charged with organizing the elections, they will sell the elections too. The political forces cannot trust them to be at the helm of the [presidential council] while the government is organizing elections. The credibility of the elections will be at stake if these guys do not resign.”

So far, all three council member have resisted calls to resign and vehemently denied accusations of wrongdoing.

The scandal, which has laid bare the weaknesses of the U.S.-backed political transition and the widespread corruption in the country, first surfaced in late July and has overshadowed the political transition. Two of the accused, Augustin and Gilles, are among four members of the council who are supposed to lead the panel through a rotating presidency.

Augustin is supposed to take the helm on Monday from current President Edgard Leblanc Fils, while Gilles’ rotation is supposed to coincide with the country’s forthcoming elections next fall.

In a letter to Conille that was subsequently leaked, Pierre-Louis accused Augustin, Gilles and Vertilaire of asking him for 100 million gourdes to retain his post. Soon after, the Anti-Corruption Unit announced it had opened an investigation and the 15-member Caribbean Community engaged with Haiti’s political parties in hopes of fending off a deeper political crisis.

The anti-corruption report points out that there are some elements of wrongdoing that warrant further investigation by a judge, but stops short of saying outright if the bribery scheme actually occurred. Instead, it details circumstantial evidence that hints at wrongdoing, such as a text exchange from Gilles admonishing Pierre-Louis from filing a complaint.

The report’s most damning findings aren’t the four pre-approved credit cards that investigators said Pierre-Louis issued to the council members, but rather the supposed monthly salaries of each of the nine presidential council members.

According to what Augustin told investigators, the council members are being paid a $40,000 monthly salary and receive other privileges. Several sources have told the Miami Herald that the actual compensation is far higher because council members are also receiving money from an intelligence budget assigned to the presidential palace.

“In a country that has all of these problems, all of this misery, police officers on strike because they are not getting paid for their risks, teachers who can’t get paid, people in the health sector who are on strike because they can’t get paid, the amount of money and privileges they are giving the [council] members is a scandal,” Madistin said.

Haitians are increasingly losing patience with the presidential panel, which has been at loggerheads with Conille’s cabinet as they try to exert control over the country’s foreign policy and other areas.

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