FORT SMITH -- A Utah man was sentenced in federal court Monday to more than five years in prison and was ordered to repay nearly $300,000 for the high school band money, intended for a Hawaiian trip, that he gambled away in Las Vegas.
Calliope Saaga, 40, made a tearful apology to the six Fort Smith Southside High School officials and parents who attended the sentencing before U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III.
He expressed anguish at betraying people he worked with at the school, saying he considered them to be friends more than customers.
"I will work until the day I die to pay this back," he said, as members of his family, including his wife and four of his six children, watched from the audience.
Holmes sentenced Saaga to five years and three months in prison and ordered him to pay $272,235.89 restitution to the 260 band members, parents and chaperones who paid money for a "once-in-a-lifetime" trip to Hawaii in 2012.
Saaga pleaded guilty in October to one of three counts of wire fraud on which he was indicted in May. The remaining two wire fraud counts were dismissed Monday.
Holmes ordered that the $18,700 of band money that had been placed in escrow be returned and distributed among the 260 victims.
The sentence will run concurrently with a five-year prison term Saaga received March 12 in federal court in Springfield, Mo. Chief Judge for the Western District of Missouri Greg Kays also ordered Saaga to pay $782,480 restitution.
Saaga pleaded guilty in federal court in Springfield to one count of wire fraud, according to court records.
The restitution is supposed to pay back the $360,000 paid to him by the Willard, Mo., High School Band Boosters for making travel arrangements for a 2012 band trip to Hawaii; the $272,235.89 for the Southside band trip; and about $150,000 for a similar band trip for the Spirit of America Marching Band in eastern Arkansas.
At Saaga's sentencing hearing Monday, Southside band director Sean Carrier described the betrayal he and other school officials felt when they learned that Saaga had gambled away the band's money. They had worked with Saaga on band trips in 2006 and 2009 and considered him to be a trusted friend.
"Our sense of trust and innocence was lost forever," Carrier said after Saaga sent him an email in April 2012 confessing that he had gambled away the band group's money.
Carrier and Holmes recounted the sacrifices many people made to raise the funds.
One woman sold her truck to raise the money to send her daughter on the trip. Others took money from savings or borrowed money from their retirement accounts. A grandmother gave the money so her two grandsons could make the trip. Others worked extra shifts at work.
"It's really very sad how bad a gambling addiction can be," Holmes said.
In explaining his thoughts on the sentence he should give Saaga, Holmes said Saaga was able to hide his thefts because he was the only link the Southside band group had on the travel, lodging, meals and events preparations for the trip.
He read in one of the court records that as Saaga was assuring victims in Missouri that plans for their trip were proceeding, he was in Las Vegas gambling away their money.
He said records showed that Saaga had withdrawn $263,000 from automatic teller machines at four Las Vegas casinos over the course of a few days.
"The heartache he created for these students is a hard lesson for him to learn," Holmes said.
Holmes and Kays also received several letters in support of Saaga.
One letter of support for Saaga in the court records from the Intermountain Specialized Abuse Treatment Center in Salt Lake City said he was being treated for his gambling addiction, depression and anxiety.
Another letter from Ifo Pili, the bishop of Saaga's Mormon congregation in Eagle Mountain, Utah, said that instead of isolating himself after his thefts came to light, Saaga has been serving in the community and the church.
"He has been an example to all of us of what it means to face the consequences of your choices with humility, yet dignity and fortitude," Pili wrote.
"I know that if given the opportunity, he will continue to be a true contributor in society and positively impact the lives of others."
Metro on 03/31/2015