Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Ballplayer ate fake passport
Jose Abreu testifies he washed it down with a beer on flight to US
When Chicago White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu finally boarded a plane to the U.S after being smuggled from Cuba to Haiti, he said he had one mission: Destroy the fake Haitian passport he was traveling on before his flight landed in Miami.
He testified Wednesday that he went to the restroom as soon as possible after the flight took off from Haiti. But flight attendants quickly started knocking on the door.
So he ripped out the first page, which bore his photo and a fake name, and dumped the rest of the passport in the restroom garbage.
“I went back to my seat, I ordered a beer — a Heineken beer — and then, little by little, I swallowed that first page of the passport,” Abreu testified, speaking Spanish translated by a courtroom interpreter.
A Major League Baseball contract with the White Sox, worth $68 million over five years, was riding on Abreu’s ability to enter the U.S. by a deadline in late October 2013, federal prose-
cutors say.
They called Abreu, 30, of Kendall, to testify in federal court in Miami in the trial of baseball agent Bartolo Hernandez, of Weston, and trainer Julio Estrada, of Miami.
Hernandez and Estrada have pleaded not guilty to allegations they were heavily involved in the shadowy world of illegally smuggling Cuban baseball players to the U.S. for lucrative contracts. The men also helped smuggle the players’ family members and loved ones, according to the indictment.
Hernandez and Estrada face long federal prison terms if convicted of conspiracy and alien-smuggling charges.
Their defense lawyers deny they did anything criminal and say they just represented and helped some 20 Cuban-born players after they defected from the communist island.
Abreu owed millions of dollars to the smugglers and their associates and paid at least $5.8 million to them in 2014, according to prosecutors Michael “Pat” Sullivan and H. Ron Davidson.
Abreu has not been charged with any crime, though he acknowledged using fake documents and arranging to have “runners” from South Florida deliver payments to the people who helped him in Haiti. If he testifies truthfully, prosecutors have agreed he won’t be prosecuted.
Wearing a stylish black suit, black shirt and redsoled black shoes, Abreu answered prosecutors’ questions quickly and in detail. He testified for about five hours on Wednesday and is due back Thursday for more questioning by both sides.
In his testimony, Abreu spoke at some length about a third defendant, Amin Latouff, a Haitian resident, who is accused of being a “fixer” for Hernandez and Estrada in the smuggling operation. Latouff is considered a fugitive from justice, according to authorities.
Abreu told the jurors that he was paid about $20 per month as a baseball player in his native Cuba. He left in August 2013 with his thengirlfriend, his parents, his sister and brother-in-law.
He testified the blue boat was about 27-feet long and had two outboard engines, 150 horsepower each. The boat was crowded with Abreu and his five family members, three crew members and a few other people fleeing to Haiti.
Abreu told the jury he spent a short time in Haiti, where the “fixer” helped him get Haitian residency papers, and he then crossed the border to the Dominican Republic. While there, he signed contracts with Estrada, Hernandez and Hernandez’s associates, he said. He trained and attended showcases with U.S. major league teams.
After learning he had an oral agreement to sign with the White Sox, Abreu said he returned to Haiti. He tried and failed to get a Cuban passport, but Latouff arranged to get him a fake Haitian passport, he said. Latouff told him he could not enter the U.S. using the fake passport and would have to destroy it while the plane was in flight, he said.
Because of the immigration rules in effect at the time for Cubans, Abreu was granted permission to remain in the U.S. and was released from the airport hours after he landed.
Shortly after he arrived in the U.S., and before the deadline, the Sox announced their contract with him. His girlfriend, now his wife, and his other relatives all made it to the U.S., with help from the fixer, within the next nine months or so, he said.
Prosecutors say that, because of free agent rules, Abreu needed to establish residency in another foreign country before signing with a major league team so he could make more money.
Abreu testified he made millions of dollars in payments to Hernandez and Estrada since 2014, including about $7 million to Estrada. Abreu suggested that was under the terms of his contracts, which gave 20 percent of his earnings to Estrada and 5 percent to Hernandez.
Estrada was best man at Abreu’s wedding, Abreu told the 15-member jury panel, made up of 11 women and four men. He said he advanced money to Estrada, including paying for a $500,000 house in the Florida Keys, owned by Abreu but occupied by Estrada and his family.
After Estrada was criminally charged last year, he asked Abreu for $15,000 per month because his assets were frozen. Abreu said he insisted on giving him $25,000 per month.
“These were people who had helped me a lot in getting into this country, so I had a lot of trust in them,” Abreu testified.
Prosecutors said Abreu never directly paid the lower-level people who helped him in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
In her questioning of Abreu, Estrada’s lawyer Sabrina Puglisi emphasized that Abreu had risked being placed in the draft because, she said, he shocked Estrada and Hernandez by illegally entering the U.S. without a visa. She said he had risked reducing his earnings and she suggested Estrada had no reason to encourage him to come without a visa because it would have reduced Estrada’s 20 percent commission.
Abreu said it worked out for him, but he had just wanted to be free, play baseball and live in the U.S.
Abreu was American League Rookie of the Year in 2014 and is the bestknown player to testify in the trial, which has already lasted a month. Among the other Cuban-born players who have testified, were Adeiny Hechavarria of the Miami Marlins and Leonys Martin of the Seattle Mariners.