Today, U.S. businessman Carl Alan Zaglin, the CEO of Atlanco, a Georgia-based military and police equipment supplier, will stand trial in the Southern District of Florida. Zaglin is charged with conspiring to commit money laundering and violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Together with his co-conspirators, Zaglin paid over $2 million in bribes to secure multi-million dollar contracts with the Honduran narco-dictatorship via the Security Tax (Tasa de Seguridad or TASA). TASA is a Honduran trust fund created in 2011 under the post-coup regime of Porfirio Lobo.
The approval of TASA was supported by the U.S. as it helped fund the U.S.-led so-called war on drugs and organized crime. Since its creation, it’s been used to procure services, equipment, and fund security forces, although it has long been criticized for its lack of transparency, auditing, and oversight. One of Zaglin’s co-conspirators, Juan Ramon Molina, the co-director of TASA was acting as the representative of the Honduran Council of Private Enterprise (COHEP), one of the U.S.’s most important and strategic allies in Honduras.
The HSN’s trial coverage of USA vs. Zaglin is part of the ‘Putting the U.S. and Canada on Trial’ campaign for supporting 12 years of dictatorship in Honduras following the 2009 military coup. The campaign was originally launched prior to the trial of the former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH), a long-time ally of the U.S. and Canada. In 2024, JOH was sentenced to 45 years in prison for his involvement in drug trafficking and arms-related charges.
This trial against Zaglin demonstrates how TASA was created to benefit U.S. security companies but also how U.S. and Canadian companies benefitted from the post-coup governments in Honduras. “Business as usual” under the U.S and Canada-backed narco-dictatorship involved corrupt practices often to the benefit of U.S. and Canadian companies operating in Honduras. The U.S. charges and criminal case against Zaglin is unique as many foreign companies with similar practices operate in impunity and are never held accountable.
Trial summaries will be posted here.
Read more about our ‘Putting the U.S. and Canada on trial’ campaign here
The case
In November 2023, Zaglin, together with former Honduran public official, Francisco Cosenza Centeno and U.S. and Peruvian dual citizen, Aldo Nestor Marchena were charged with conspiring to (successfully) pay bribes to Honduran officials to secure up to three contracts for the sale of police uniforms, accessories and goods manufactured by Zaglin’s company, Atlanco. Cosenza and Marchena have since plead guilty to the charges. The trial against Zaglin is expected to last up to two weeks in the Miami-based courthouse.
The bribery scheme involved Zaglin, his co-conspirator and Florida resident Marchena, who Zaglin recruited to assist in laundering the bribes to Honduras; Brian DeHart, the former President of Atlanco; and Luis Berkman, the former Vice President of International Sales at Atlanco and who is also connected to the Florida-based company, Tactical Products Group. On the Honduras side, the bribes were received by Honduran public officials, Cosenza and Juan Ramón Molina, who is accused in a separate case and has since plead guilty after being detained in Houston in 2023.
Juan Ramon Molina is a former director of TASA appointed by the Honduran Council of Private Enterprises (COHEP). COHEP is the largest business and trade organization in Honduras and a long-time ally of the U.S. government. Molina received bribes, along with Cosenza, to obtain and guarantee payment of two contracts between TASA and Altanco totally over $10 million. The contracts involved the sale of uniforms and accessories to the Honduran National Police. Another effort was made to secure a third contract but Atlanco was not successful.
The first uniform contract was executed in June 2015 and totaled approximately $4.8 million and the second in October 2016 totalling approximately $5.6 million. Separate from the contracts, Zaglin recruited executives at Tactical Products Group, another U.S. company based in Florida, and Marchena to arrange the bribes that were sent to off-shore accounts and then later, to Honduras. The bribes were concealed through so-called “brokerage agreements” and totalled approximately 25% of each of the contract proceeds.
According to the Pro-Honduras Network, Zaglin and his company, Atlanco (later renamed as TRU-SPEC), operated Maquila Basic Apparel, a clothing factory or sweatshop in La Ceiba, Honduras. Atlanco took advantage of the tax breaks and dismal labor conditions including the pro-business laws like the Temporary Labor Law approved as part of the ‘Honduras is Open for Business’ strategy following the coup. Later, the uniforms were exported under pro-business trade policies like CAFTA to Georgia where Atlanco/TRU-SPEC is based, before being exported from the U.S. back to Honduras. This allowed Atlanco to obtain what Pro-Honduras Network calls “international billing” for products marketed as “premium imports” or “first world purchases” when in reality, the products were made in Honduras.
Atlanco’s factory in Honduras was closed in 2024 amist what institutions like COHEP decry as evidence of the “loss of investment” and investment risk as part of their campaign against the government of President Xiomara Castro, who has attempted to roll back some of the pro-business policies approved under the post-coup governments. To date, the U.S. has strongly opposed many of Castro’s efforts.
What is expected this week at the trial
- ** Jury selection will take place on Tuesday, September 2nd.
- ** The U.S. government will begin to argue their case. Prosecutors have identified 17 possible witnesses who will begin to take the stand this week. Witnesses include Zaglin’s U.S. and Honduran co-conspirators; at least three Honduran officials with knowledge of how the TASA was administered and/or high-level officials that worked in the JOH government; and Marchena who ran a sophisticated money laundering scheme to facilitate the payment of the bribes.
For more information
Read the Department of Justice’s communique about the case here
Read the original indictment: