April 19, 2002 – The former head of the Virgin Islands Lottery was sentenced Friday to 20 months in a federal prison on charges that he defrauded the V.I. government of $72,000.
Alec Dizon, 37, of St. Croix was director of the government-run lottery from 1995 to February 1999. During that time, he charged personal expenses and made cash withdrawals for his own use from government accounts that he managed, according to court documents.
He pleaded guilty in April 2001 and agreed to pay back about $72,000. He has been awaiting sentencing since then.
On Friday, District Court Judge Thomas Moore sentenced Dizon to 20 months in prison to be followed by three years' probation upon his release. Moore denied Dizon's requests for a lighter sentence that would not include prison time, saying that Dizon did not appear to have accepted full responsibility for his actions.
"I'm not convinced that you've really accepted that what you did was a crime. It was more than bad judgment," Moore told Dizon in court.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hugh Mabe said Dizon had abused his position as a high-level government official. "This is a case of a morally corrupt and arrogant attitude," Mabe said. "He believed he was entitled to live beyond his means because he was executive director."
Family members who testified on behalf of Dizon said he was a loving father of two children and a coach in a youth soccer league. Dizon, a former vice president of his class at St. Croix Country Day School, has no prior criminal record.
"I knew this was wrong, and I'm ready to accept the consequences," Dizon told the judge.
Dizon is the second high-ranking official under former Gov. Roy Schneider to be sentenced to federal prison time. In 2000, Moore sentenced former Public Works commissioner Ann Abramson to a two and a half year term on her 1999 conviction on charges of improperly awarding construction contracts involving Federal Emergency Management Agency funds in the wake of Hurricane Marilyn in 1995.
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