Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Man FBI dubbed ‘Rooster’ testifies against ex-mayor
Says he suggested developers make a contribution
HALLANDALE BEACH
— Alan Koslow, the flashy lobbyist turned FBI informant, strolled to the stand Wednesday in a red tie and gold-framed glasses ready to take on his next role: Star witness in the public corruption trial of Joy Cooper.
Koslow, dubbed “Rooster” by the FBI for his brash and arrogant ways, played a key but unwitting role in the agency’s case against the longtime mayor of Hallandale Beach.
His testimony will resume Thursday and is likely to be among the most lively in a case that spanned seven years and relies heavily on audio and video recorded by the FBI without Cooper’s knowledge.
Cooper was arrested on Jan. 25, 2018, on charges she took $5,000 in illegal campaign contributions. She has also been charged with official misconduct and soliciting contributions in a government building. If convicted of all charges, she faces up to 20 years in prison.
As a lobbyist, Koslow was the go-to guy for developers. He was also the go-to guy for the FBI in its quest to sniff out public corruption in Broward County.
Koslow did not know his meetings with two FBI agents posing as developers were being recorded
until after a hotel room takedown that took place a year later. The disbarred attorney made that clear several times throughout his testimony.
Koslow testified that he introduced the out-of-town developers he knew as Jack and Joey to Cooper in July 2012 at her City Hall office.
At the time, Cooper was in the midst of a re-election campaign against arch rival Keith London.
Koslow told jurors he suggested the developers make a campaign contribution to help her win. He wrote down a number on a slip of paper and showed it to Cooper. She saw the number and said “add a zero,” he testified.
Koslow said he suggested the developers donate a total of $10,000, but split it up into two $5,000 donations.
Under cross-examination from Cooper attorney Larry Davis, Koslow said he remembered collecting $8,000 in cash from his phony developer buddies in August 2012, but wasn’t sure they came to his home. The cash was delivered in a Dunkin Donuts bag, a detail not revealed to jurors.
Soon after that money drop, Koslow left for Europe on a family vacation, but had promised to turn the money over to a client and sometime lover who ran a Hollywood school catering to the Russian community. Her name: Julia Yaremchuk.
Under the arrangement, Yaremchuk was to get several teachers at the school to write $500 checks for Cooper’s election campaign, Koslow testified.
Davis, who argues Koslow kept the money, asked him whether he’d given the money to Yaremchuk by Sept. 11, 2012.
Koslow testified he gave Yaremchuk the money, but could not recall the exact date.
Davis asked Koslow whether he ever bragged to Jack and Joey about having a sexual relationship with Yaremchuk.
“I don’t go bragging,” Koslow answered. “I might have mentioned it.”
Koslow told of taking a trip to New Orleans with his developer clients in November 2012, months before he became an informant.
“They wanted me to make a presentation … to their higher ups,” he said. “I had no knowledge they were undercover. I found that out much later. It was a ruse.”
Cooper’s attorney asked Koslow if he recalled asking his developer friends for a $5,000 loan to help him pay for a woman’s breast implants.
Koslow said he could not recall that detail.
“If I said, it that doesn’t mean it was true,” he said from the stand.
Under cross-examination, Koslow said he became a target of the FBI in 2011 after an ex-girlfriend tipped them off — a detail he only became aware of a year ago.
On Wednesday morning, jurors heard more audio and video recordings along with testimony from Jack VanderStoep, one of the two undercover agents who worked on the Cooper case.
VanderStoep, who is now retired, recalled his last meeting with Cooper on Oct. 18, 2012, at Gulfstream’s Yard House restaurant.
Over lunch, the two pretend developers and Koslow were all trying to get a guarantee from Cooper to vote for their 20-story project in exchange for thousands in campaign contributions — an illegal quid pro quo.
The mayor refused, VanderStoep testified under cross-examination.
“You want me to give you a guarantee,” Cooper said on the video recording played for jurors. “I can’t give you a guarantee.”
At one point, Cooper complained that she felt “mutchered,” a Yiddish word meaning to harass or torment.
“She was distracted and upset” by news that came out that day, VanderStoep said. “She left the table crying.”
When the case with Cooper seemed to be going nowhere, the FBI flipped Koslow into an informant after luring him into a scheme to launder more than $1.2 million in “dirty” money from drugs and gambling, VanderStoep testified.
VanderStoep told jurors his last contact was Koslow was in August 2013.
That night, Koslow came met with VanderStoep and his partner in a Fort Lauderdale hotel room to pick up $50,000, VanderStoep testified.
As soon as Koslow had the cash in hand, a swarm of FBI agents came into the room. VanderStoep and his partner left while the agents persuaded Koslow to help them ferret out corrupt politicians or face a stiff prison term on money laundering charges.
Koslow is not a credible witness, Davis told jurors Tuesday. Davis pointed to Koslow’s “memory gaps” and former cocaine addiction.
The trial will resume at 1:30 p.m. Thursday and could extend into December.