Carl Zaglin, convicted of FCPA violations in the Southern District of Florida, has withdrawn his Second Motion for a New Trial — quietly collapsing a bid that hinged on a jailhouse affidavit the DOJ called fabricated.
A jury found Zaglin guilty in September 2025 under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and related statutes for bribing Honduran government officials to secure contracts to provide uniforms and other goods to the Honduran National Police. Judge Jacqueline Becerra sentenced him to 8 years in December 2025.
The new-trial motion rested on affidavit testimony from Danny Rodriguez, a fellow inmate at the Federal Detention Center in Miami. Rodriguez claimed co-defendant Aldo Nestor Marchena told him “I am going to lie on an old fucking Jew” before testifying at Zaglin’s trial. Marchena had already pleaded guilty; the DOJ filed a motion seeking a 40% reduction in his sentence for substantial cooperation.
The DOJ pushed back hard. Prosecutors called Rodriguez a “serial offender with a long history of making misstatements” in the district court, argued the purported evidence was cumulative impeachment material at best, and said it wouldn’t change the outcome given multiple witnesses, documents, and recordings establishing Zaglin’s guilt. After interviewing Marchena on January 5, 2026, the government reported he denied the statements entirely.
Judge Becerra had granted Zaglin’s request for a writ of habeas corpus ad testificandum, a court order requiring the U.S. Marshals Service to produce Rodriguez for testimony. That’s now quashed.
Zaglin’s filing says the defense “increasingly became aware of alleged facts which undermine the efficacy of the Motion,” without specifying what those facts are. Sentencing stands. Eight years.
James Okafor