Photo courtesy of Pro-Honduras Network. From left to right: Jose Eduardo Atala Zablah, Aline Flores and Juan Ramón Molina, three representatives of the Honduran Council of Business Enterprises (COHEP), all of which were named in a court document on day five.
What happened today
- Juan Ramón Molina finished testifying
- Forensic accountant Michael Petron testified
- The government displayed select emails to the jury then rested their case.
- The defense presented their first witness: Honduran attorney, Rubén Rodezno.
What to expect tomorrow
- The defense will present two witnesses (although this could change): U.S. lawyer James Kane and former Atlanco Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Scott Haygood.
Key details that surfaced
Juan Ramon Molina (continued from day five)
- Molina paid a $2.5 million dollar bond to be conditionally released in the U.S. pending further legal proceedings for the charge of money laundering.
- In total, Molina received $2 million in bribes including from Atlanco and other companies.
Michael Petron
- Petron is a forensic accountant that works with a firm named Stout. He has been analyzing the financial transactions related to this case since July 2020. He began by reviewing Marchena and Achieve’s accounts and expanded his analysis based on several meetings he and his team had with the government.
- Petron displayed several charts and diagrams that he prepared to describe the electronic transfers between several companies that are involved in the case. He made clear that his analysis was limited to electronic transfers and could not track cash payments.
- In a summary of financial transactions between TASA -> Atlanco -> Achieve (these numbers do not include cash payments):
- $10,656,478 left TASA’s Honduran accounts between July 31, 2015 and August 25, 2015 to Atlanco’s Georgia accounts. Then $2,456,131 left Atlanco’s accounts to Achieve’s Florida-based accounts between January 13, 2016 to August 30, 2017.
- This means that the TASA in Honduras paid Atlanco over $10 million of which over $2 million was paid in bribes.
- $134,000 was paid to Honduran official, Francisco Cosenza’s DC Investments account.
- $114,000 was paid to Honduran official, Juan Ramon Molina’s Sky Max Leasing account between March 1, 2017 to May 18, 2017.
- $350,000 was paid to Honduran Jaime Nativí in three ways. $58,630 to a China-based company called Hangzhou Eaglerd Traffic Industry on January 27, 2016; $75,000 to a Honduras-based company called CCOEXPI S. de L. on April 21, 2016; and $216,370 to Jaime Arturo Nativi in Honduras between January 27, 2016 to March 18, 2016.
- In total, Petron showed a diagram that summarized all transactions which demonstrated that of the over $10 million that the TASA paid to Atlanco, $598,000 was paid in bribes via electronic transfer to Francisco Cosenza, Juan Ramón Molina and Jamie Nativí.
Defense’s first witness, Honduran lawyer Rubén Rodezno
Rodezno is a Honduran corporate attorney listed on the U.S. Embassy’s website as one of their recommended lawyers for U.S. citizens or businesses needing legal services in Honduras. He has been practicing law for 32 years and received some of his education in the U.S. He testified in English. Rodezno represents several U.S. companies in Honduras including ExxonMobil, Texaco, Monsanto, and Walmart, among his Honduran clients that include banks. He charges $330 USD/hour. He has been working with Atlanco and its affiliate companies in Honduras for 20 years.
Rodezno testified that he was involved in the drafting of some contracts between Atlanco and TASA but none of them were used in the final transaction between the two parties. Rodezno was unaware of some of the brokers that were being used in the deals between Atlanco and TASA and testified that “waterfall payments” were not an unusual concept in Honduras in business transactions [NOTE: The issue seems to be not what waterfall means in this case, but more how the term is interpreted in this case ie. Whether it refers to bribes or simply business transactions].