Visiting Senior Judge Michael A. Ponsor for the District of Massachusetts also granted the U.S. government’s request for leave to dismiss counts seven and eight (wire fraud) without prejudice.
The court also granted the defense’s motion to exclude evidence of ethics violation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric S. O’Malley, the prosecutor, filed the motion on Monday.
After hearing arguments from both parties on Monday afternoon, Ponsor granted defense attorney Mark B. Hanson’s motion to dismiss counts two to six (wire fraud).
Reksid will be tried next week on the charge of bribery concerning a program receiving federal funds.
Yesterday, the prosecution requested that the trial be stayed for one week, to which the defense did not object.
Fifty-seven potential jurors present in the courtroom were ordered to return next week after Ponsor addressed them regarding their duty.
In his motion, O’Malley stated: “A dismissal without prejudice would serve the interests of justice insofar as it would allow appellate resolution of certain issues raised and described by the court pertaining to counts two through six in the superseding indictment.”
O’Malley added, “Because counts seven and eight are similar to, and as the government believes, part of the same scheme that was alleged in counts two through six, the government further submits that if the scheme is to be tried, is should be done in a single case.”
Dismissal without prejudice means the charges can be re-filed.
In the superseding indictment, the prosecution said Reksid committed the following wire fraud as counts two through eight:
• Jan. 21, 2009, wire transfer of $5,000 from CNMI to Abidjan, Ivory Coast;
• Feb. 10, 2009, wire transfer of $6,000 from CNMI to Abidjan, Ivory Coast;
• March 10, 2009, wire transfer of $3,500 from CNMI to Abidjan, Ivory Coast;
• April 6, 2009, wire transfer of $5,500 from CNMI to Abidjan, Ivory Coast;
• June 1, 2009, wire transfer of $2,500 from CNMI to Abidjan, Ivory Coast;
• Aug. 18, 2009, wire transfer of $4,500 from CNMI to Lagos, Nigeria; and
• Aug. 27, 2009, wire transfer of $3,000 from CNMI to Lagos, Nigeria.
In this case, Hanson said, “the superseding indictment fails to allege any wire transfer that was actually in furtherance of the scheme to defraud as alleged in the superseding indictment — the facts presented to the grand jury. The superseding indictment is fatally defective and should be dismissed.”
The federal government has filed a superseding indictment on March 18, 2011, charging Reksid with seven counts of wire fraud and one count of bribery concerning a program receiving federal funds, which he denied.
According to the superseding indictment, Reksid received a bribe of $3,000 from the owner and president of a business engaged in a series of transactions with DPL involving EPA Brownfields grants on or about Feb. 12, 2009.
During this period, the indictment added, Reksid also borrowed money from friends, associates and family members that accumulated to $300,000 and wired them to unidentified persons based in Ivory Coast and Lagos, Nigeria whom he met on the internet.
Reksid managed to obtain the loans through false pretenses that he had substantial sums in a bank account in New York, which he never had, and that he needed to pay some attorney fees to “unlock” it, the indictment stated.
