A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida has returned an indictment charging Thomas Osbeck, 70, of Fort Myers, Florida, with engaging in, and attempting to engage in, illicit sexual conduct with minors in Haiti, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Yara Lorenzo Klukas for the Southern District of Florida, and Special Agent in Charge Brett D. Skiles of the FBI's Miami Field Office. The case is filed in Miami federal court under case number 26-cr-20468.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Southern District of Florida
According to the Justice Department, the indictment is based on the alleged sexual abuse of a Haitian boy between approximately 2004 and 2008, when the boy was approximately eight to 11 years old, and on an alleged attempt to engage in a commercial sex act around 2019 to 2020 with another Haitian boy. No victim is named in the indictment announcement, and Awaaz Punjab does not identify alleged victims in cases involving minors.
Osbeck routinely travelled from the United States to Haiti over the past three decades, according to court documents cited by the Justice Department. He was the founder of Jesus in Haiti Ministries and later Ignite Your Faith Ministries, organizations through which, prosecutors say, he took in vulnerable children in Haiti.
How the investigation unfolded
The federal case began with a tip. According to the criminal complaint described in earlier court reporting, the FBI received a tip in March 2025 from a member of a nonprofit anti-trafficking and exploitation organization. FBI Special Agent Cindy Barrois wrote in the complaint that Osbeck had travelled to Haiti repeatedly since the 1990s, founded and directed Jesus in Haiti Ministries in 1998, and left that organization in 2015 before founding Ignite Your Faith Ministries in the northern Haitian city of Cap-Haïtien, where he opened a residence known as "Tom's House." The ministry's website said he had 18 boys in his care and was the only non-Haitian staff member on site, according to the complaint.
Source: The Florida Press (Local 10 News / Associated Press reporting)
On June 26, 2025, customs officers searched Osbeck's cellphone after he arrived at Miami International Airport on a flight from Cap-Haïtien, and agents obtained a search warrant for the phone on July 10, 2025, according to the complaint. On September 30, 2026, Haiti's Brigade for the Protection of Minors and the country's Institute of Social Welfare and Research raided the Ignite Your Faith Ministries home in Cap-Haïtien. Inspectors found the home had no authorization to operate, no legal placement documents, no registry of admitted children and no qualified staff such as social workers or medical personnel, and 14 children aged seven to 17 were found there, according to the complaint. Osbeck and the home's director were taken into custody, and Cap-Haïtien police spokesperson Arold Jean told the Associated Press that Osbeck lacked the paperwork to operate an orphanage.
Osbeck was returned to the United States on October 14, 2026, and was arrested by U.S. law enforcement on landing at Miami International Airport. He has remained in custody since that time, the Justice Department said. At his initial appearance on October 15 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Marty Elfenbein, prosecutors asked that he be held in pretrial detention, and court records showed he was being held at the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami. Each federal charge carries a possible sentence of up to 30 years in prison, according to the complaint reporting.
The law, and a wider pattern in Haiti cases
Federal law makes it a crime for a U.S. citizen or resident to travel abroad and engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor, which allows American prosecutors to bring charges for conduct that occurred in another country. The Osbeck case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 to marshal federal, state and local resources against child sexual exploitation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Abbie D. Waxman and Trial Attorney Jessica L. Urban of the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, and investigated by FBI Miami.
The case follows several others involving Americans who worked with children in Haiti. In September, former Ohio missionary Jeriah Mast pleaded guilty to molesting two boys in Haiti, the Associated Press reported, and a Miami jury last year convicted Michael Geilenfeld of sexually abusing boys at an orphanage he founded in Port-au-Prince. Federal agents also arrested Maylon Foshee, 23, of Mansfield, Louisiana, in late September, accusing him of illicit sexual conduct with minors under his care during mission trips to Haiti. South Florida is home to the largest Haitian community in the United States, and many families in Miami-Dade and Broward counties maintain close ties to relatives, churches and charities in Haiti.
Investigators believe Osbeck may have victimized additional children. The Justice Department says anyone who believes they may be a victim of Osbeck, or who has information that could help the investigation, is encouraged to contact the FBI at OsBeckInfo@fbi.gov.
What happens next
An indictment is merely an allegation, and Osbeck is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court. The indictment moves the case from the complaint stage to a formal grand jury charge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, where he will face arraignment and trial proceedings in Miami. Haitian authorities have not said what will happen to the children who were living at the Cap-Haïtien home or whether the home's director will face charges in Haiti.