Former death squad leader convicted of fraud

NEW YORK (CNN) - A former Haitian paramilitary leader was convicted Friday of six felony counts of grand larceny and fraud by a New York jury, a spokeswoman from Kings County Judge Abraham Gerges' chambers told CNN.

Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, 51, former leader of the Front Revolutionnaire Pour L'Advancement et le Progres d'Haiti, or FRAPH, (the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti), was accused of arranging millions of dollars in fraudulent financing for three Brooklyn properties, according to a statement from the New York attorney general's office.

he U.S. State Department has accused Constant of brutal atrocities in Haiti when he founded FRAPH after the fall of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1993. Human rights groups say that Constant's organization was little more than a death squad targeting Aristide's followers. As FRAPH's front man, Constant okayed the torture, gang rape and killing of thousands of Haitians, according to declassified State Department documents and files from the United Nations.