A Colorado man who founded an orphanage in Haiti has been sentenced to 210 years in prison for sexually abusing children.
Michael Karl Geilenfeld, 73, was handed his sentence for the abuse at St. Joseph's Home for Boys in Port-au-Prince, according to the Department of Justice on May 23.
Geilenfeld founded the orphanage in 1985 and operated it for more than two decades. During that period of time, the DOJ said, he repeatedly traveled from the United States to Haiti, where he sexually abused young boys.
Authorities arrested Geilenfeld in Littleton, Colorado, in January 2024.
A federal grand jury in Miami convicted him in February 2025 of one count of traveling in foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct and six counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place between 2005 and 2010.
Each of the six counts represents each victim who was a child at the time of the offense, according to the DOJ.
During the trial, six men testified about the physical and emotional abuse they endured from the orphanage's director. The men, now in their 20s, were between 9 and 13 years old when the abuse happened.
Additional alleged victims testified but prosecutors said he was only charged for the abuse of the six victims.
Witnesses during the trial also described how Geilenfeld manipulated others to receive financial support and keep his operation running.
Geilenfeld used his position of trust and access to vulnerable children under the guise of humanitarian work, DOJ officials said.
“This sentencing marks the end of a case built on the courage of survivors and the dedication of investigators,” Jose Perez, assistant director of the FBI Criminal Investigative Division, said in a statement. “For decades, Geilenfeld used his position of trust and access to exploit vulnerable children under the guise of humanitarian work. We are grateful to those victims who came forward to report their abuse,” Perez added.
The accusations against Geilenfeld first emerged a decade ago when Paul Kendrick, an activist in Maine, accused him of abusing boys in Haiti.In 2015, Geilenfeld and North Carolina-based charity Hearts for Haiti sued Kendrick for defamation over the allegations, asserting that they damaged his reputation and led to the loss of millions of dollars in donations.
The lawsuit dragged on for six years.
Kendrick’s insurance companies ultimately agreed to pay $3 million to the charitable organization, but nothing to Geilenfeld, according to the activist's attorney Mark Randall. Hearts With Haiti and Geilenfeld dropped their defamation claims.