Charlemagnes’ attorney seeks to sever ex-VIHFA employee from fraud case

ST. CROIX — A U.S. District Court filing last week identified previously unnamed parties in a federal criminal case against prominent Virgin Islanders who allegedly reaped millions in federal dollars while mismanaging disaster recovery materials.

The indictment, filed in June, alleged that Davidson Charlemagne took in millions of federal dollars through a contract to manage and distribute lumber for disaster recovery projects in the U.S. Virgin Islands. According to the indictment, Charlemagne never disclosed that he was employed by the Education Department as a facilities manager or that he stored lumber on the department’s property without paying rent. His wife, Sasha, was also indicted in connection with the scheme.

Charlemagne’s company, D&S Trucking, was a subcontractor of the company to which the contract was actually awarded — Island Services Group, or ISG. Prosecutors alleged that most of the profit went to Charlemagne’s company. It noted that from February 2021 to November 2022, D&S billed the V.I. Housing Finance Authority more than $1.5 million in labor costs while paying less than half a million dollars to employees. Charlemagne’s wife allegedly received $67,037, but according to the indictment, the V.I. Labor Department has no record of her being employed by the company.