Rocha pleads not guilty to charges of acting as Cuba agent, transfers condos to his wife

Victor Manuel Rocha, the former U.S. ambassador who has been charged by Miami federal prosecutors with acting as an agent of Cuba, pleaded not guilty Wednesday and asked that he not have to appear in court Friday for his arraignment.

Rocha, 73, who spent decades at the U.S. State Department until he left the diplomatic service in 2002, was arrested on Dec. 1 and indicted by a grand jury on Dec. 5, accused of defrauding the United States and acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government. The Foreign Agents Registration Act requires those working under the control of foreign governments to notify the U.S. Attorney General’s office. Rocha also face charges of making false statements to obtain and use a U.S. passport.

In his not-guilty plea, Rocha says he “fully understands the nature of the offenses” he is charged with and waived formal arraignment, the initial appearance in court to hear the charges.

Rocha has remained in federal detention since the arrest. In the meantime, he transferred the title of the property of four luxury Brickell City Center condos that he bought with his wife, Karla Wittkop Rocha, exclusively to her, according to records filed on Feb. 8, with the Miami-Dade County Clerk’s office.

The documents seem to have been originally signed in January. The title transfers were first reported by local Spanish-language station America TV.

The two units at the Brickell City Center Rise Condo and two others at the Reach Tower are valued at a total of over $4 million, according to real estate website Zillow.

Jacqueline Arango, a Miami attorney with the firm Akerman who is representing Rocha, and who signed the title transfers as a witness, did not reply to a request for comment.

According to the federal indictment, if Rocha is found guilty the government would seize any property “derived from any proceeds obtained, directly or indirectly from the commission of such offense.”

Nelson Rodriguez Varela, a Miami attorney specializing in criminal and real estate law, said the property transfers were “curious,” though he stressed that Rocha is presumed innocent until found guilty or he pleads guilty to some or all of the charges.

“If he did that in order to defeat any government attempt to take his interest in the property if he is found guilty, I don’t think he would be successful because he cannot transfer his equitable interest in the property because he is married,” he said.

People who knew Rocha described him as someone preoccupied with money. He told acquaintances that he left the federal government to pursue better-paid positions in the private sector. He worked as senior business advisor at the Miami law firm Foley & Lardner, senior vice president for Xcoal, a coal exporting company, and as senior vice president for Latin America at Canadian firm Barrick Gold Corp.

Though Rochas was not charged with espionage, the U.S. Justice Department accused him of working as an undercover agent of Cuba’s General Directorate of Intelligence. The indictment accuses him of using his position to obtain sensitive information and pass it to Cuba, though it does not provide any details about what damage he may have done or the sort of secrets he revealed. A document attached to the indictment has been sealed by the court.

The case sent shockwaves through the diplomatic and intelligence communities, where Rocha was highly regarded as an expert on Cuba and Latin American affairs. In Miami circles he was known as a fervent Republican and an admirer of former President Donald. Trump, although the indictment says Rocha was taped by an FBI undercover agent claiming his “right-wing” persona was part of his cover as a Cuban agent.

The delay in Rocha’s arraignment, which was postponed twice, suggested to legal experts that he might have been negotiating a plea deal with prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom has set trial for March 25 in Miami. She has yet to reply to Rocha’s request to skip appearing in court on Friday.