Attorneys for the U.S. Justice Department and former business owners Morris Anselmi and Kimberly McCollum are closing in on a plea deal nearly two years after the pair was indicted for allegedly stealing half a million dollars in federal COVID-19 relief funds, a magistrate judge heard Thursday.
The attorney’s statements echoed those they made to U.S. Magistrate Judge Emile Henderson III in December. Henderson opened Thursday’s calendar call by saying that he hoped progress had been made since then.
“Your honor, you’re going to be disappointed,” said attorney Scot McChain, who is representing Anselmi. McCollum’s attorney, Annabelle Nadler, said she and her client were “very receptive” to a resolution offer they had received from the government but that they had not yet received an answer to their follow-up questions. A Justice Department attorney said they’re still waiting on authorizations from Washington.
Henderson urged the parties to move forward and noted that Anselmi, whose medical issues have prevented him from returning to the territory, still hasn’t been advised of his rights nearly two years after his indictment.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Henderson said.
Anselmi and McCollum were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud and making false statements to the U.S. Small Business Administration and a financial institution in connection with an alleged scheme to defraud the federal Paycheck Protection Program.
Anselmi in particular has been identified as a key figure in the ongoing federal case against Davidson and Sasha Charlemagne — former subcontractors accused of bilking millions under a federally-funded contract while allegedly mismanaging disaster recovery materials — and former V.I. Housing Finance Authority executive Darin Richardson. According to a grand jury indictment of the Charlemagnes and Richardson, Richardson awarded the warehousing contract to Anselmi and McCollum’s company, Island Services Group, while working as VIHFA’s chief operating officer. ISG subcontracted the work to the Charlemagnes’ company, D&S Trucking.
Richardson was found 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 last March. Over the course of a two-week trial, prosecutors showed that Richardson received a $107,000 loan from Anselmi and that he continued signing off on checks to ISG despite notifying VIHFA of a conflict of interest.
The Charlemagnes have not yet gone to trial, and their attorneys have sparred with prosecutors over what testimony from Anselmi, if any, could be heard by a jury if they choose to do so. Anselmi’s medical issues prompted attorneys on both sides to seek a recorded deposition in March, but the process came to a standstill after “a dispute arose as to the extent to which Anselmi could be cross-examined regarding the PPP Indictment,” Senior District Judge Wilma Lewis recorded in a September opinion.
Lewis found that an immunity agreement between Anselmi and the government only covered testimony related to the Charlemagnes and that “in the absence of a change in Anselmi’s potential criminal exposure which would permit him to fully answer Defendant’s cross-examination questions… without a legitimate fear of self-incrimination,” his testimony would be excluded at trial.
