ST. THOMAS — The August 6 indictment of\u00a0Julito Francis, Gerard Castor Sr. and John Woods will see a trial before a federal jury on \u00a0September 28, following an arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ruth Miller on Wednesday, where the three men pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n
District Court Judge Curtis V. Gomez will preside over the case.<\/p>\n
Francis, 53, former Director of Finance and Administration for the VIPFA, was charged with 11\u00a0counts of conspiracy, bribery, extortion under color of official right, honest services wire fraud and\u00a0perjury; Gerard Castor, 69, president and owner of Balbo Construction Corporation, was charged with 10 counts\u00a0of conspiracy, bribery and honest services wire fraud; and Woods, 59, co-principal of an architectural\u00a0company that worked on behalf of the VIPFA, was charged with three counts of conspiracy, bribery and extortion\u00a0under color of official right on August 6, following a protracted federal investigation into government fraud.<\/p>\n
The three men appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ruth\u00a0Miller of the District of the Virgin Islands the same day they were arrested, and were released pending Wednesday’s arraignment.<\/p>\n
According to the indictment, Castor provided more than $400,000 in improvements to Francis\u2019 personal\u00a0residence, and over $10,000 in improvements to Woods\u2019 personal property. In return, Francis and Woods\u00a0used their official positions to ensure that Balbo Construction was awarded construction contracts by the VIPFA\u00a0that were worth over $17 million, including a multi-million contract, and supplements thereto, to build the St.\u00a0Thomas Regional Library.<\/p>\n
The indictment further alleged that the defendants attempted to conceal the bribery\u00a0scheme by creating false documents that suggested Francis and Woods intended to pay Castor for the work\u00a0performed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ST. THOMAS — The August 6 indictment of\u00a0Julito Francis, Gerard Castor Sr. and John Woods will see a trial before a federal jury on \u00a0September 28, following an arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ruth Miller on Wednesday, where the three men pleaded not guilty. District Court Judge Curtis V. Gomez will preside over the case. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[228,191,147],"tags":[2932,2855],"yoast_head":"\n