France-Haiti hoax group promises action

MONTREAL, July 23 (UPI) -- Activists behind an online hoax indicating France was planning to give billions to Haiti said in Montreal they are not intimidated by lawsuit threats.

Members of the Committee for the Reimbursement of the Indemnity Money Extorted from Haiti, or CRIME, said during a Thursday news conference they have not received any paperwork related to the French government's threatened lawsuit and they plan to continue actions against the country, The (Montreal) Gazette reported Friday.

"We have every intention of continuing with these kinds of actions," a CRIME spokeswoman said. "If (France) does take us to court, then it will draw even more attention."

The group released a hoax press release July 14 on a Web site that was a near perfect forgery of the French Foreign Ministry's official site. The release said France would repay Haiti $21 billion as reimbursement for money Haiti paid the European country in exchange for colonial independence in the 1800s.

"We still have a lot of work to do, but I think we've successfully generated interest," the spokeswoman said. "We're hearing about (the hoax) in the New York Times, in the Quebec media, really everywhere."