What happened today
- Luis Berkman finished testifying
- Former Honduran official Juan Ramón Molina & cooperating government witness began to testify.
What to expect tomorrow
- Juan Ramón Molina will finish his testimony.
- The jury will be asked to review approximately one dozen emails (as part of the evidence presented by the government).
- An agent involved in the investigation or the case will testify.
- The government is expected to rest its case tomorrow in the late morning (pending anything unexpected between today and tomorrow). Later, the defense will present any evidence or witnesses if they so choose.
Key details that surfaced
Luis Berkman (continued from yesterday)
- Today, the court viewed contracts, text and WhatsApp messages, and listened to audio files. Prosecutors displayed several contracts including two that the Security Tax (TASA) signed with Atlanco in 2019. These contracts are related to the third and fourth attempt to bribe Honduran officials for contracts. The first was dated March 25, 2019 to supply uniforms for the National Penitentiary Supervisory Force (FNCCP) totaling $45,740.96. The second dated March 25, 2019 was to supply uniforms to the Anti-Mara and Gang Special Force (FNAMP) for a total of $141,910.00.
- The court also viewed bank statements of a company named International Defense Group (IDG) that was created by Luis Berkman with help from Zaglin, the accused. Payments for bribes were run through IDG in 2019 in order to bypass having to involve Aldo Marchena’s company Achieve, which was used to send bribe payments related to the first two 2019 contracts. One statement showed that IDG received $39,406.70 from Atlanco that was later used by Berkman to pay Francisco Cosenza, a Honduran official and Executive Director of TASA. And the other part was to “someone else” who was not specified by Berkman.
- Berkman also explained in greater depth the “INL program” that was mentioned on day two and three of the trial. According to Berkman, a man named Steve Ortiz was contracted by Atlanco as an independent consultant with the intention of assisting Atlanco in acquiring contacts in Honduras and Ecuador. Ortiz was apparently well connected in Latin American countries. In reference to the program and Ortiz’s efforts to secure contracts with TASA for security and tactical gear manufacturings and supplies, he wrote in an email displayed in court:
- “Good morning, on 8/21/2019, I had the opportunity to meet with [Honduran] Minister [Julian] Pacheco, Commander and two-star general José Trinilo Pacheco Flores and Juan Ramón from TASA. The companies participating in solutions are: Tru-Spec [based in Atlanta], Rock River Arms [based in Illinois], Jenkel [spelling may have been incorrect], Arista, Zery Group [among others]. I presented on the INL program and explained the benefits of the companies. The Commander Pacheco Flores was going to coordinate the program.
- When asked further details about the INL program, Berkman responded that the INL was going to contribute money for the contract.
- Three audio files were played in court and transcripts were given to the jury. The audio files captured discussions between Luis Berkman and two other Atlanco employees including Zaglin, the defendant, and Steve Dehart. The three men were clarifying bribe payments and contracts between Atlanco and TASA, discussing uncertainties such as when would bribe payments be paid to the Honduran officials like Francisco Cosenza that was assisting them in securing the deals, or one what portion of the contracts Atlanco would be required to pay a 20% bribe. Since the project would have 80% funding from the INL and 20% from TASA, the men were discussing whether the 20% bribe would be paid on the 20% paid by TASA or the entire amount of the contract. The conversation demonstrated an extreme degree of greed.
Juan Ramón Molina
- Juan Ramón Molina is a Honduran citizen. He was one of the three board members appointed to the Technical Committee of the Security Tax Commission (TASA). Molina is a cooperating witness and co-conspirator of the TASA case accused in a separate case file. He testified to the court in English. He was arrested when traveling through the Houston airport heading to Dubai on October 13, 2023. He said that when U.S. officials took him aside to ask questions, he cooperated until they began to refer to the National Council of Defense and Security (CNDS). He plead guilty to money laundering.
- Molina admitted to receiving three bribe payments totaling $114,000 from Achieve [the company owned by Marchena and used by Atlanco to send bribes].
- Molina described the Security Tax Fund as a “trust created in 2012 to gather and collect money and taxes for the specific reason of financing the extra-budgetary needs of security entities of the Honduran government.” He intermittently served as the President of the Technical Committee between 2014 and 2022. Molina testified that TASA was created at a time when Honduras was “going through a dark period of violence when there were assassinations every hour of the day.”
- To demonstrate Molina’s position in TASA and how he was nominated to the board, the prosecutors showed a letter dated December 23, 2015 addressed to President Juan Orlando Hernández signed by Aline Flores, the President of COHEP naming Jose Ramón Molina as their representative to TASA, and Jose Eduardo Atala Zablah as his alternate.
- Molina got involved in the bribery scheme when he was approached by Francisco Cosenza (another co-conspirator and former Executive Director of TASA) to expedite payments to Atlanco using his influence in the Central Bank of Honduras (BCH), the institution responsible for overseeing the TASA’s finances.
- The first TASA contract valued at $4,850,663.66 was signed by Molina and Dehart on behalf of Atlanco and was dated June 25, 2015. It involved the purchase of 26,054 police uniforms, enough to supply every police officer.
- The second contract was dated October 24, 2016 for a total of $5,695,774.93 and was signed by Molina on behalf of TASA. To obtain this contract, Atlanco did not have to participate in a bidding process. Molina described that Atlanco complied with the delivery of the uniforms but in 2017, the color of the uniforms was excessively fading and police were having problems with the boot sizing which appeared to be incorrect. In other words, the uniforms were poor quality.
- Atlanco also received smaller contracts in 2019, two in total, with TASA dated March 25, 2019 for uniforms for the National Penitentiary Facilities Supervisory Forces (FNCCP) and the anti-gang force known as the FNAMP.
- Prosecutors then displayed account statements involving both TASA payments to Atlanco that coincided within days or weeks of bribe payments received in Molina’s bank account registered in Belize.
- Example 1: A wire transfer was sent from TASA to Atlanco on February 16, 2017 for $206,472.26. Later, on March 1, 2017, Molina received a wire transfer from Achieve to the account of his company called Sky Max in Belize for $50,000.
- When viewing Sky Max’s account statements, there were deposits made to the account by other companies including Pegasus Medevac, Desfile S.A., and Aviation Registry.
- Example 2: The contract between TASA and Atlanco was signed on March 27, 2017 for $871,378.46. Then on April 26, 2017, Sky Max received a $50,000 payment, which in court, was described as being a bribe so that Molina would expedite the TASA contract payment to Atlanco. After Molina used his power to expedite the payment, a wire transfer for payment of the contracts was sent from TASA to Atlanco on May 10, 2017 for $929,625.65. As a kick back on May 19, Sky Max received a $14,000 wire transfer or bribe from Achieve.
- Example 1: A wire transfer was sent from TASA to Atlanco on February 16, 2017 for $206,472.26. Later, on March 1, 2017, Molina received a wire transfer from Achieve to the account of his company called Sky Max in Belize for $50,000.
- The court was also shown a series of text messages between Francisco Cosenza and Juan Ramón Molina. In one series of messages after being asked to interpret then, Molina testified that the U.S. Embassy had assisted the U.S. companies like Atlanco and others obtain meetings with the Minister of Security Pacheco in order to discuss contracts. Molina testified that Pacheco was not eager to meet with the U.S. companies but did not indicate why.
- In one of the text messages, Cosenza and Molina shared a cartoon that mocks the huge budget of the TASA and the limited results in security obtained by the TASA.