A 70-year-old Fort Myers man who spent roughly three decades traveling between Florida and Haiti to run two Christian ministries now faces federal charges alleging he sexually abused boys in his care. Thomas Osbeck was indicted by a grand jury in the Southern District of Florida on charges of engaging in, and attempting to engage in, illicit sexual conduct with minors in Haiti, and he has been in custody since his arrest.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the indictment stems from allegations that Osbeck traveled regularly between the United States and Haiti for about 30 years, according to court documents cited in the Tampa Free Press. Prosecutors allege he sexually abused one Haitian boy between 2004 and 2008, beginning when the boy was about 8 years old and continuing until he turned 12, and that he attempted to engage in a commercial sex act with another Haitian boy around 2019 or 2020. The indictment is a charge, not a finding of guilt.
Osbeck founded Jesus in Haiti Ministries in 1998 and ran the organization until 2015, before starting a second group, Ignite Your Faith Ministries, according to reporting from the Miami Herald. He reportedly used both ministries to take in vulnerable children across Haiti. The Herald's report indicates the FBI opened its investigation after receiving a complaint on March 25, 2025, from a representative of a nonprofit working against human trafficking and exploitation.
Victim Accounts Described in Court Filings
A second alleged victim said Osbeck grabbed his hand and tried to place it on his own genitals during an incident around 2019 or 2020, when the boy was about 16 — the boy said he pulled away and refused. Osbeck applied in May 2025 to become a Florida foster parent for two children between the ages of 10 and 18.
Federal investigators suspect the two boys named in the indictment may not be Osbeck's only victims, per the Tampa Free Press account of the case. The FBI's Miami field office is leading the investigation and has asked anyone who was abused by Osbeck, or who has relevant information, to contact the bureau at [email protected].
Arrest in Cap-Haitien, Return to U.S. Custody
Osbeck was taken into custody in Haiti at the end of September 2026 following a Haitian investigation. Cap-Haitien police spokesperson Arold Jean told the Haitian Times that U.S. authorities arrested Osbeck in Cap-Haitien on Sept. 30. Jean said Osbeck did not have the required paperwork to operate an orphanage in the city, where Haitian authorities found at least 12 minors.
A separate figure emerged in a report from the Roys Report, which said Haitian agents told the FBI that 14 children appeared to be living at Osbeck's home at the time it was raided. It is not established whether these two figures describe the same group of children or the same count. Osbeck was sent back to the United States on Oct. 14, 2026, and U.S. law enforcement arrested him when his flight landed at Miami International Airport, according to the Tampa Free Press.
Part of a Wider Pattern of Prosecutions
The Roys Report noted that Osbeck is the third American missionary to Haiti prosecuted this year under a 2003 law that gave the U.S. jurisdiction over sex abuse committed abroad. In a separate case highlighted by the Haitian Times, American missionary Maylon Foshee was charged in federal court with illicit sexual conduct involving minors in Haiti and was scheduled to return to court on Oct. 12. The same Haitian Times report noted that a jury in Miami convicted Michael Geilenfeld of sexually abusing boys at an orphanage he founded in Port-au-Prince.
In another case the Justice Department has publicized, a Colorado man was sentenced to 210 years in prison for sexually abusing numerous children at an orphanage he founded and directed in Haiti. The Osbeck prosecution falls under Project Safe Childhood, a Department of Justice initiative launched in May 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation, per the Tampa Free Press.
Officials Who Announced the Case
The case was announced 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 FBI Miami Special Agent in Charge Brett D. Skiles. Trial attorney Jessica L. Urban of the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Abbie D. Waxman are prosecuting the case, according to the Tampa Free Press report.
