James Botti, pay up. Now.
That’s what a federal judge told the Shelton developer Wednesday, after Botti’s attorney had sought to extend the deadline by which Botti must forfeit $120,500 to the government.
The message came in a strongly worded ruling by U.S. District Judge Charles Haight. filed Wednesday in New Haven.
“It is troubling that Defendant has adopted this casual attitude toward compliance,” Judge Haight wrote in his ruling.
If Botti doesn’t make the payment by Aug. 6, Haight threatened to revoke his bond and throw him in jail until his September sentencing.
Background
Botti was ordered to pay the money to the government after the guilty verdict in his structuring trial last November.
Botti was also found guilty of mail fraud in a second trial that ended April 1. He was accused of bribing public officials in Shelton to get his development projects approved.
Read all the stories on the trials here.
Though his sentencing for both charges has been postponed until September, Botti had agreed at a hearing in May that he would forfeit the funds by July 20.
Instead, his lawyer, William Dow III, filed a motion that day asking the court to extend the deadline for 60 days.
On July 19, “defendant was informed that the commitment to provide those funds would not be honored,” Dow wrote in his July 20 motion, without elaborating on where exactly that money was supposed to come from. “Because that commitment fell through, the defendant is unable to honor his commitment to comply with the court’s order.”
Dow Wednesday declined to elaborate on the source of those funds.
“I’m hopeful that the problem will be resolved without any significant difficulty,” Dow said.
Federal prosecutors opposed the motion, citing Dow’s own arguments that Botti can’t be trusted.
“This is the same defense counsel, who in his opening, through his questioning of witnesses and in his closing argument informed the court and the jury that any statement made by defendant — including which day of the week it was — was unreliable,” prosecutors Richard Schechter and Rahul Kale noted in their objection.
Judge Haight agreed with the prosecutors.
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BOTTI James CSH Ruling Mot Ext Time 072810
“Even assuming the truth of the extremely vague representations in the motion, unsupported by any sworn declaration by the Defendant himself,” Haight wrote, “it is unclear why Defendant was unable to deposit at least a portion of the security as a show of good faith.”
The ruling also requires Botti to complete a financial affidavit detailing his assets for the court by that same day.
According to court documents, that affidavit was supposed to have been filed with the court by now. Dow declined to comment on that matter.
“Apparently, Defendant intends to keep the location and value of his assets to himself, while simultaneously declining to deposit money or property to secure the judgment,” Haight wrote.
