Former top Bolivian official faces bribery trial over tear-gas deal with South Florida firm
When Bolivia’s longtime leader Evo Morales was forced to step down amid political upheaval over his disputed reelection two years ago, a rival government deployed police with tear gas to attack throngs of protesters who supported the former socialist president.
The chemical agent was bought from a South Florida tactical weapons company at grossly inflated prices by the conservative Bolivian officials who assumed power, according to court records and criminal charges filed in South Florida.
Bribes sealed the deal, federal authorities in Miami say.
At the center of the alleged foreign corruption scheme was Arturo Carlos Murillo Prijic, the former Bolivian minister of government. He was arrested earlier this year at a home in Doral and indicted in December on conspiracy and money-laundering charges accusing him of accepting more than $500,000 in kickbacks from the South Florida tear-gas supplier between November 2019 and April 2020.
Murillo, 57, who has been detained at a lockup since his arrest, is scheduled for trial on Jan. 18 in Miami federal court. He is the only one of five defendants charged in the foreign corruption case who has chosen to face a jury trial.
The other four defendants named as co-conspirators already pleaded guilty in 2021. They are: Sergio Rodrigo Mendez Mendizabal, 51, the minister’s former chief of staff; Bryan Berkman, 36, CEO of Bravo Tactical Solutions in Tamarac; his father, Luis Berkman, 58, of Georgia; and Philip Lichtenfeld, 48, a U.S. citizen. All are scheduled for sentencing before U.S. District Judge Paul Huck on the same day that Murillo is set to go to trial.
Bryan Berkman, his father, Luis Berkman, and Litchtenfeld are accused of paying more than $1 million in kickbacks to Murillo, Mendez and two other Bolivian officials to obtain a $5.7 million tear-gas defense contract with the conservative government of former interim Bolivian President Jeanine Áñez. The Berkmans and Lichtenfeld laundered the payments to the former Bolivian government officials through bank accounts in Florida and Bolivia, according to the Homeland Security Investigations complaints filed by prosecutor Eli Rubin.
Murillo’s defense attorney, Ana Davide, said the federal prosecution of her client is the result of a political power play in Bolivia by the new socialist government that succeeded Áñez’s administration, which lasted only one year after Morales had stepped down.
“Our position is that the prosecution of Mr. Murillo is driven by the current Bolivian administration who are trying to silence their critics,” Davide told the Miami Herald Tuesday. “The Bolivian government has incarcerated all the members of the Murillo government, including the past president, Jeanine Áñez, because of their anti-socialist views.”
Four admitted guilt
In Miami federal court, the four defendants signed factual statements as part of their plea agreements, admitting to the following scheme:
Between March and April of last year, Bryan Berkman, Luis Berkman, Lichtenfeld, Murillo and Mendez arranged for the Central Bank of Bolivia to transfer about $5.7 million to Bravo Tactical Solutions. In turn, the South Florida company wired about $3.3 million of those proceeds to a bank account in Brazil to pay the actual manufacturer of the tear gas under Bravo’s defense contract with the Bolivian government.
The huge difference — about $2.4 million — accounted for Bravo’s inflated defense contract covering both profits and bribes, prosecutors said.
Both Berkmans then arranged for $700,000 to be transferred through a Miami bank account as kickbacks to Murillo and Mendez, and an additional $500,000 as fees to Lichtenfeld for helping obtain Bravo’s tear-gas contract with the Bolivian government, according to the defendants’ plea agreements. Lichtenfeld was a longtime friend of Mendez, the minister’s former chief of staff.
Another $40,000 in bribes was paid to two other unnamed Bolivian officials, prosecutors said.
The defendants “intentionally engaged in complicated transactions to make it difficult to trace the source of this cash,” according to the statements filed with their plea agreements.
Lawyers for the four defendants, Michael Nadler, Joseph DeMaria, Frank Schwartz and David Magilligan, declined to comment before their clients’ sentencing.
They not only face several years in prison, but prosecutors plan to recover millions of dollars in illicit proceeds through forfeiture judgments and then turn the money over to the U.S. government.
Bolivia suing as well
However, what makes this foreign corruption case different from the vast majority is that the current government of Bolivian President Luis Arce, who is affiliated with Morales’ socialist party, is seeking to recover the same millions through legal action. Arce’s government has sued the same defendants in the federal criminal case, but in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, claiming breach of fiduciary duty and civil conspiracy.
“Bolivia has suffered significant monetary damages as the direct ... result of each defendant’s participation in the conspiracy,” says the suit, which was filed by the Greenberg Traurig law firm in Miami.
The Bolivian government’s case is scheduled for trial in October 2022, but that proceeding would happen long after federal prosecutors are expected to obtain forfeiture judgments against the defendants.
This story was originally published December 22, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
