Federal prosecutors are recommending a more than 12-year sentence of imprisonment for Calvert White, the former Sports, Parks and Recreation commissioner who was convicted of wire fraud and bribery last summer.
“The defendant’s abuse of public office and creation of a scheme to demand and accept bribe payments in exchange for facilitating the awarding of a $1.43 million government contract, coupled with his leadership role in the scheme, warrants a significant custodial sentence,” U.S. Justice Department trial attorney Alex Dempsey wrote in a sentencing memorandum last week. “The government recommends a sentence of 151 months of imprisonment, which is at the low end of the applicable guideline range, followed by three years of supervised release.”
Honest services wire fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Bribery concerning federally-funded programs carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison if it involves at least $5,000 — the exact amount wired to White by a cooperating witness over the course of a federal investigation into White and his accomplice, business owner Benjamin Hendricks.
In a separate filing, prosecutors recommended a nine-year sentence, followed by three years of supervised release, for Hendricks.
The charges against White and Hendricks stemmed from a federal investigation into a kickback scheme by which White — with Hendricks as a go-between — tried to solicit a $16,000 bribe in exchange for steering the award of a federally-funded security contract to Mon Ethos Pro Support, a cybersecurity company formally owned by convicted felon and cooperating witness David Whitaker.
A jury found White and Hendricks guilty on all counts after a weeklong trial in July.
“As a long-standing public servant, the defendant, perhaps more than anyone, knew that public services is a public trust, and that an official in such a prominent and sensitive positions must always place loyalty to the Constitution, local and federal laws, and core principles of ethical conduct above personal interest and private gain,” Dempsey wrote. “By steering a contract to his financial benefactor, Whitaker, the defendant breached the bond of trust that the citizenry bestowed upon him.”
That scheme, Dempsey wrote, damaged and undermined the integrity of the U.S. Virgin Islands’ procurement process.
“Competitors that thought they were bidding on a level playing field — and citizens who thought that their public officials were maximizing their taxpayer dollars — both realize now that they have been deceived and cheated,” he wrote.
White’s attorney, Clive Rivers, requested a maximum 27-month sentence, while Hendricks’s attorney requested 37 months. Both are slated to be sentenced on Jan. 22.
