Former V.I. Housing Finance Authority Executive Darin Richardson will likely be sentenced in late March on St. Thomas, more than a year after he was convicted of his part in an alleged scheme involving mismanaged lumber meant for disaster recovery projects.
Richardson’s attorney, Darren John-Baptiste, asked for a continuance during a telephonic status conference Tuesday morning to allow Richardson’s son, who lives on the mainland, time to arrange travel to the territory. Assistant U.S. Attorney Cherrisse Amaro opposed the motion and noted that Richardson’s sentencing had already been delayed multiple times.
A jury found Richardson guilty of making material false statements to a federal agent, criminal conflict of interest, bank fraud, money laundering and making false statements on a loan application on March 5. His sentencing was pushed back from its original date in July because John-Baptiste had to represent Benjamin Hendricks, the business owner and contractor who was convicted alongside former Sports, Parks and Recreation Commissioner Calvert White last summer. In January, Hendricks was sentenced to serve five years and eight months in prison.
Richardson’s sentencing was moved again in September because, according to an emergency motion filed at the time, John-Baptiste’s office and living space were destroyed in a fire. On Tuesday, Kearney gave Richardson until the end of the week to file a memo explaining why the court shouldn’t move forward with sentencing in March.
Several other high-profile public corruption cases have been filed and gone to trial since Richardson was arrested in June 2024 alongside Davidson and Sasha Charlemagne, the subcontractors who were responsible for stewarding a vast store of disaster recovery lumber under a federally-funded contract administered by VIHFA. The case against the Charlemagnes has languished because Morris Anselmi, a key witness who was himself indicted for Paycheck Protection Program-related fraud, has been receiving medical care on the mainland.
Attorneys for the Charlemagnes, Anselmi and the government have sparred over the admissibility of Anselmi’s testimony. A deposition he gave last year came to an abrupt halt after he acknowledged that he was cooperating with prosecutors in the woodpile case in hopes of receiving immunity. In subsequent court appearances, attorneys for the government, Anselmi and his co-defendant, Kimberly McCollum, have repeatedly stated that they are close to reaching a plea agreement in the PPP case. During a status conference Tuesday morning, Assistant U.S. Attorney Denise George said the government hoped to resolve the plea issue before resuming the deposition.
“In addition to that … one outstanding issue is a new immunity agreement that … it’s separate, but that needs to be done as well with respect to Anselmi prior to resuming with the deposition,” she said. “And that should be completed shortly as well.”
The Charlemagnes’ trial was set for July 13 on St. Croix.
