A five-count indictment was unsealed on Wednesday, charging a Georgia businessman, a former Honduran government official, and a former Florida resident for their alleged participation in an international scheme to pay and conceal bribes to Honduran government officials.
The bribes were paid to secure contracts to provide uniforms and other goods to the Honduran National Police.
According to court documents, Carl Alan Zaglin, 68, owns a Georgia-based manufacturer of law enforcement uniforms and accessories.
Francisco Roberto Cosenza Centeno, 65, was the former Executive Director of the Comité Técnico del Fideicomiso para la Administración del Fondo de Protección y Seguridad Poblacional (TASA). This Honduran governmental entity procured goods for the Honduran National Police.
Aldo Nestor Marchena, 50, was a Boca Raton, Florida resident.
Between March 2015 and continuing until about November 2019, Zaglin, Marchena, and others allegedly agreed to bribe Honduran government officials, including Cosenza, to secure contracts with TASA worth over $10 million.
In exchange for the bribes, Cosenza and other Honduran government officials allegedly assisted Zaglin, Marchena, and others in obtaining contracts for the sale of uniforms and other goods for the Honduran National Police and securing payment on the contracts.
Zaglin, Marchena, and their co-conspirators allegedly used the proceeds from the corrupt Honduran government contracts to make bribe payments to Honduran government officials.
To promote the scheme and conceal the bribe payments, Zaglin, Marchena, Cosenza, and others allegedly laundered the proceeds of the corrupt scheme through bank accounts and front companies in the United States and Belize.
As alleged in the indictment, the conspirators sent over $166,000 to bank accounts controlled by Cosenza and another Honduran foreign official to further the scheme.
The defendants are all charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering. Cosenza and Marchena are also each charged with one count of money laundering and one count of engaging in transactions in criminally derived property.
Zaglin and Marchena are both charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Zaglin is also charged with one count of violating the FCPA.
All defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
If convicted, the defendants face up to 20 years in prison on each money laundering offense, ten years in prison on engaging in transactions in criminally derived property, and five years in prison on each FCPA-related offense.
Homeland Security Investigation’s Miami Office is investigating the case with assistance from HSI’s Atlanta Office.
Trial Attorneys Peter L. Cooch and Anthony Scarpelli of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Eli S. Rubin for the Southern District of Florida are prosecuting the case.
In June 2021, the Justice Department announced an Anticorruption Task Force to focus on investigations, prosecutions, and asset recoveries related to corruption in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador through the department’s FCPA enforcement program, counternarcotics prosecutions, and Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative.