Overview
- Machado notified U.S. District Judge Bill Davis with a handwritten filing that he will go to trial on narcotrafficking, money‑laundering and fraud charges.
- He acted before the court’s Dec. 15 deadline for accepting a cooperation agreement that could have yielded credit for acceptance of responsibility.
- He is detained at the Fannin County Detention Center after last week’s extradition from Argentina, where he spent about four years under house arrest.
- Prosecutors describe an aircraft‑transaction scheme to launder millions; his former partner Debra Lynn Mercer‑Erwin was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in federal prison.
- Filed evidence includes Bank of America records naming José Luis Espert as the ultimate beneficiary of a $200,000 transfer, while the court set a Jan. 9, 2026 pretrial conference and ordered confirmation of his medication or a medical transfer.