An American security contractor at the center of a mysterious case roiling Haitian politics says that he and a group of fellow veterans were sent to Haiti on a mission to protect a businessman signing a more than $50 million contract at the country's central bank.

Chris Osman tells The Associated Press that he and six fellow contractors were arrested by Haitian police during what was supposed to be a simple reconnaissance of the route their client would take to the bank the following day.

The 44-year-old retired Navy SEAL says the operations "went bad for us." It's the first on-the-record interview by any of the arrested men.

The contractors' unexplained release and the still-murky nature of their mission have helped fuel political chaos in Haiti.