Many Motions, Little Movement in Auffenberg Pretrial Hearing

The St. Thomas Source is reporting today:

Jan. 17, 2008 -- There was a flurry of motions but little movement Thursday in U.S. District Court on St. Croix as Judge Raymond L. Finch heard a laundry list of defense and prosecution motions in the case of James A. Auffenberg Jr. and three other men charged with evading federal taxes by misusing the V.I. Economic Development Commission program.

The U.S. Department of Justice is charging that the four men illegally claimed a 90 percent federal tax break on more than $300 million funneled through the St. Croix-based company Kapok Management, L.P. It alleges that Auffenberg, a prominent car dealer in Swansea, Ill., illegally avoided more than $74 million in taxes from 1999 to 2002 by joining Kapok as a partner and shipping money to Kapok, run by Peter G. Fagan of De Leon, Texas; James W. Ferguson III of Amarillo, Texas; and J. David Jackson of St. Croix. All four have pleaded innocent.

This is a very interesting case - a guilty conviction here could have a major impact on the territory.