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Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesReal Estate Fugitive Extradited Back to VI

Real Estate Fugitive Extradited Back to VI

Rosemary Sauter-Freett (VIPD photo)Rosemary Sauter-Frett returned to the Virgin Islands Thursday night, but not for a vacation. The onetime Real Estate broker was extradited to St. Thomas to face charges of obtaining money by false pretense, embezzlement by fiduciaries and operating a criminal enterprise.

She was arrested by the V.I. Police Department just before 10 p.m. Thursday. The arrest stems from charged levied by the VIPD in February 2010 when police reported that an investigation showed she had bilked her real estate customers of more than $3 million. Sauter-Frett left the Virgin Islands in 2010 and was the subject of a federal arrest warrant.

Sauter-Frett had been the president of the V.I. Territorial Board of Realtors and the St. Thomas Board of Realtors. According to reports at the time, she had taken with her about $2.5 million from accounts placed in her care by her real estate customers, leaving behind questions about her role in a police corruption case and an alleged murder-for-hire plot aimed at her husband.

She was arrested in January near Fallbrook, Calif., without incident. She was arrested by FBI agents with the assistance of deputies from the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, pursuant to the federal warrant, and was returned to the territory Thursday.

Sauter-Frett was held on $1 million bail and remanded to the Bureau of Corrections.

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