Attorneys representing the husband and wife charged in connection with a multimillion-dollar disaster recovery fraud still haven’t received a trove of CCTV footage that prosecutors intend to use at trial, a judge heard Wednesday morning.
Their appearance in the federal courthouse on St. Croix came one week after a federal judge granted Sasha Charlemagne’s request for more time to file motions. Charlemagne’s attorney, Pamela Colon, wrote that discovery included “hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of closed circuit video that must be reviewed prior to the filing of any motions on behalf of Mrs. Charlemagne.” The judge gave Charlemagne 60 days from receipt of the government’s evidence.
That hasn’t happened yet.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Emile Henderson III heard during a calendar call for the Charlemagnes Wednesday that prosecutors potentially had terabytes of footage — enough to fill seven hard drives. Colon said prosecutors had told the defense that five of the seven hard drives had been copied. Colon and attorney David Cattie, representing Davidson Charlemagne, argued that each defendant should receive their own copy of the footage.
Henderson appeared inclined to agree, noting that the Charlemagnes could be preparing separate defenses despite being married. Assistant U.S. Attorney Yasir Sadat did not object to making multiple copies but noted that doing so would further delay the handover.
Sadat said it was his understanding that a power outage had momentarily interrupted one attempt at copying the data, forcing them to start over.
Henderson set the next calendar call for April 10, giving the parties three months to sort through the CCTV footage and resolve a motion to dismiss the government’s original indictment, which was filed on behalf of Sasha Charlemagne in December.
Sasha and Davidson Charlemagne were initially indicted on charges of money laundering conspiracy in June, and Davidson Charlemagne was charged with government program fraud and wire fraud. The charges stemmed from a two-year federal investigation into a $4.4 million contract to manage and store lumber for disaster recovery projects. Prosecutors later added eight counts of making false claims against the United States, and in a second superseding indictment, they further charged Sasha Charlemagne with wire fraud.
Former V.I. Housing Finance Authority executive Darin Richardson was also charged in connection with the alleged fraud, but a judge agreed to sever Richardson’s case in September.
According to the indictments, the lumber contract was awarded to Island Services Group — or ISG — who then subcontracted it to the Charlemagnes’ company, D&S Trucking. The principals of ISG, Morris Anselmi and Kimberly McCollum, were themselves indicted almost one year ago for the alleged theft of half a million dollars in federal Paycheck Protection Program loans.
Attorneys for Anselmi and McCollum also appeared before Henderson for a calendar call Wednesday, during which Henderson expressed concern that Anselmi still hadn’t been advised of his rights due to medical problems that have prevented him from being returned to the territory.
McCollum’s attorney, Scot McChain, and Anselmi’s attorney, Nahra Nadler, indicated to Henderson that the parties were close to a resolution.
“I feel like I’m having deja vu,” Henderson said, adding that it was perhaps the sixth time he’d heard that. Henderson set another calendar call for March 13.
