Photo: Courtesy of the Marriott hotel in Key Largo, Florida.
What happened today
- Co-conspirator Bryan Berkmin finished on the stand.
- An American Airlines fraud analyst testified
- Co-conspirator Aldo Marchena began to testify.
What to expect tomorrow/next week
- The trial is suspended until Monday morning but Marchena will continue on the stand.
- The government will call more witnesses, although they have not disclosed who.
Key details that surfaced
Bryan Berkman’s testimony
- On day three, government witness Bryan Berkman briefly mentioned an INL (U.S. State Department, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs) program but provided few details. Today, he was asked more specifically about the program. According to Berkman, the INL-funded program allowed security and tactical gear companies to submit proposals for funding. Although it was not entirely clear, it seemed like the U.S. program was a donation to the Security Tax (TASA) Trust Fund to purchased gear, supplies, and military and police equipment. As Berkman and the accused, Zaglin both worked with U.S. based security supply companies, Berkman described how he assisted various U.S. arms and security companies submit proposals to the program designed by a consultant Steve Ortiz. According to Berkman, U.S. companies like Arista, 5.11 Tactical Gear, Atlanco, Armor, and Fiber Concepts participated in the bidding process.
- Berkman described how bribes were paid to Francisco Cosenza, the Executive Director of the TASA in order to help advance the proposals he was involved in submitting to the INL program. The entire bribery scheme with Honduran authorities that involved Berkman took place from 2015 to 2019.
- Prosecutors showed an email written by Steve Ortiz describing that as part of the INL program, a delegation of Honduran officials including Cosenza and two “three-star military generals” traveled to the U.S. The email outlined how Cosenza had been chosen by President Juan Orlando Hernández to join the delegation. It also mentioned how the delegation visited Atlanta, Georgia in October 26 to 29th, 2015, near where Atlanco’s corporate offices are located.
- The proposal submitted by various U.S. companies included helicopters and planes, virtual polygons, uniforms, shields and tactical equipment, and arms. The proposal involving Berkman was to provide supplies from 2019 to 2021 totaling over $283 million.
- Just as Berkman had assisted in bribes involving Honduran authorities, he also briefly spoke about the bribery scheme he and his father, Luis Berkman were involved in in Bolivia. According to Berkman, the bribes to Bolivian authorities involved contracts involving tear gas manufactured by a U.S. company named Condor.
- The defense questioned Berkman’s sentencing and guilty plea for the Bolivian case, which included a reduction of his sentence from 28 months in prison to 11 months in prison, 14 months of home confinement, and six months of probation.
Donna Williams, American Airlines fraud analyst
- Williams provided an analysis of Honduran official Francisco Cosenza’s flight records that directly implicated the defendant Carl Zaglin. On January 6, 2017, Cosenza traveled from Honduras to Miami and returned on January 9, 2017. Cosenza listed a Marriott hotel in Key Largo, Florida as his address while visiting the U.S. The flight was purchased by a credit card in Carl Zaglin’s name.
- This testimony was the first to directly tie Cosenza, a co-conspirator in the case to Zaglin, whose defense attorney claimed was never directly involved in the bribery schemes in Honduras and had no knowledge of what his colleagues at Atlanco and TPG were doing.
Aldo Marchena, co-conspirator & cooperating witness
- Marchena pleaded guilty to money laundering for his involvement in the Atlanco/Zaglin case. He walked into the courtroom in cuffs wearing a beige prison jumpsuit. He is currently waiting for his sentence and imprisoned in the Federal Detention Center Miami (just a brief walk from the courtroom where the trial is taking place). Marchena’s testimony directly connects the defendant Carl Zaglin to bribes paid to Honduran officials in order to obtain multi-million dollar uniform contracts from TASA.
- Marchena’s companies included Achieve Capital, Achieve Real Estate, Achieve Global Environmental Alliances (GEA). His “offices” in various cities in the U.S. and cities around the world were “virtual offices” instead of established buildings and addresses. For example, in Miami, Marchena paid $150/month for a virtual office space, an address, and the right to receive mail, $40/hour to use a conference room, and $25/hour for an office. He has no experience in the tactical supply business and does not consider him a broker of any type.
- Marchena met Zaglin in September 2015. Prosecutors walked Marchena through his first meeting with Zaglin and how he and Zaglin downloaded an online broker contract template and modified it to give the impression that their business relationship was legitimate. Marchena described Zaglin modifying the contract to increase Marchena’s 5% commission to 25.4% as a manner to cover up the bribes that Marchena would later sent from his company Achieve’s accounts to U.S. and Honduran bank accounts. He described how the contract was fraudulent and that Zaglin avoided speaking to Marchena on the phone in one instance when Marchena was seeking bribe banking information for Cosenza. Marchena also testified how Zaglin would request invoices that were vaguely written in order to justify payments from Atlanco’s accounts to Achieve.
- Prosecutors displayed two wires that Atlanco sent to Achieve on January 13 and 14th, 2016. They totaled almost $800,000, very close to the amount that Atlanco paid in bribes to Honduran officials for the TASA contract the year before.
- Prosecutors also displayed one of Achieve’s bank statements with details of wire transfers. One wire was made on March 18, 2016 to Jamie Nativi’s BAC bank account in Honduras for $75,000, and another to Luis Berkman on March 25, 2016 for $50,000.