A Samoan travel agent who defrauded three high school marching bands in two states has been sentenced to mandatory jail time, and ordered to pay more than half-a million-dollars in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Missouri.

Samoa News has previously reported on two separate, but identical crimes committed by Calliope R. Saaga, aka "Ope", 40 of Saratoga Springs, Utah. However, federal prosecutors yesterday revealed that there are actually three high schools which became victims of the defendant’s crime.

In all three cases, parents and students fundraised for their dream trip to Hawai’i in 2012 but none of the marching bands ever made the trip due to the defendant’s criminal action, according to the prosecution and court documents.

MISSOURI CASE

In the first case, Saaga pled guilty last October under a plea agreement with prosecutors to one count of wire fraud at the federal court in Springfield, Missouri while 14 other charges were dismissed.

He was accused of defrauding Willard High School marching band by stealing $360,000 and using the money for gambling, trips to neighboring Samoa and one wire transfer of $100,000 to a bank in Samoa.

According to the agreement, wire fraud — a felony — is punishable by not more than 20 years imprisonment, a fine of $250,000 and three years of supervised release. He must also pay in full any restitution ordered by the court.

Saaga booked no reservations as required in the contract for the band’s trip to Hawaii. Instead, as he received wire transfers from the band boosters, Saaga used the funds to finance his personal lifestyle, including at least 47 days spent gambling in Las Vegas, Nevada, according to the plea agreement.

The defendant appeared yesterday before U.S. District Court Judge Greg Kays, who handed down a sentence of five years in federal prison without parole and was ordered to pay $782,480 in restitution.

Electronic court records didn’t show— as of yesterday morning— if Saaga will start serving the jail term right away or remain out on bond.

Saaga’s attorney David R. Mercer, with the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Springfield, didn’t immediately respond to Samoa News email request for comments.

Last week Samoa News reported on several letters of support asking the court for leniency for Saaga, and most of them requested that he be allowed to return home to serve his community and work to pay any restitution ordered by the court.

On Monday this week, the defense submitted to court a letter of support from Leone M. Saaga, the defendant’s wife. She was writing not only on behalf of her husband of 21-years, but especially on behalf of the couple’s six children - ages 7 to 21. She also identified each child by name, as well as their academic achievements in school.

“He is a selfless, compassionate and loving man who loves his family intensely. He has spent most of his life with my family and is a wonderful son in-law and brother in-law to my parents and my siblings,” Mrs. Saaga wrote in her two page letter about her husband. “He and I have opened our home to countless family and friends since our first year of marriage and still do so.”

“As many have attested, my husband loves his family and loves the youth. He has sacrificed our home and his time to take care of my parents better than I. He prepared their meals, took them to run their errands,” she said. “Calliope is smart, intelligent, and charismatic. He is a people person.”

“Despite the wrong he did, his legacy will be one of service and unconditional love, not the crime that he has committed,” she said, adding that she is aware of the consequences of her husband’s crime and does not condone what he did at all.

“When I found out what he did, to say that I was upset is an understatement. Not only did he betray these students, but worse, he betrayed his own wife and children. I was furious and dumbfounded. It almost ruined our marriage as I threatened to leave him,” she said.

However, she said a band director at an Arkansas band group “reminded me that regardless of the crime, I needed to support and love my husband. So, your honor, I stand by his side and support him no matter what the outcome simply because I love him and the crime he committed does not depict the man he was and is.”

“My heart goes out to all the students and families that he hurt and I can only imagine how crushed they were when all their hard work was for not,” she said. “My husband is very sorry for crushing the dreams of so many youth and families. He regrets the decisions he made that led to what he did and acknowledges that what he did was wrong.”

ARKANSAS CASES

As previously reported by Samoa News, Saaga had also pled guilty under a plea agreement for an identical charge at the federal court in Fort Smith, Arkansas for defrauding $272,500 from the Southside High School marching band in that state. He will be sentenced Mar. 25 in this case.

In their news release yesterday about the Missouri case, prosecutors also said that Saaga will also be sentenced on Mar. 25 at the Fort Smith federal court for a similar $149,980 fraud scheme involving the West Memphis school district in Arkansas.

According to prosecutors, the total loss calculated for the victims in these three fraud schemes was $782,480.