Crime

Charlemagnes Plead Not Guilty to Federal Fraud Charges in Hurricane Relief Case

ST. CROIX — Davidson Charlemagne and wife, Sasha Charlemagne, were arraigned on Thursday at the District Court of the Virgin Islands on St. Croix. They both pleaded not guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to defraud taxpayers of $4 million through exploitation of hurricane recovery funds. A week ago, United States Attorney Delia L. Smith announced the arrests, which stemmed from a two-year federal investigation into a V.I. Housing Finance Authority contract for the storage and management of wood brought to the territory as disaster relief, earmarked for the reconstruction of buildings damaged by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Federally-purchased lumber which had been placed at the back of the Sunshine Mall in Frederiksted, was relocated to the abandoned Alexander Henderson Elementary School (Credit: Tsehai Alfred, V.I. Consortium) The investigation found that Mr. Charlemagne was allegedly profiting off the storage of the wood as his company, D&S Trucking, would collect vastly infl...