ST. CROIX — In a small room located at the Department of Justice in Castle Coakley, journalists gathered for an announcement that had already rocked the territory: the arrest of former Governor John P. de Jongh (and Julito Francis) by Acting Attorney General Claude Walker.<\/p>\n
The Consortium had already broken the news, although the publication’s original story mentioned the District Court, it turned out that the charges were brought solely by the local DOJ, as Walker read aloud the charges against de Jongh and Julito, which includes\u00a0two counts of embezzlement of public monies, and neglecting to pay over public monies in violation of Virgin Islands criminal code.<\/p>\n
Following the AG’s announcement, The Consortium asked if the DOJ would continue down the path of fighting corruption in government.<\/p>\n
“We will have a robust public corruptions division,” Walker stated. “I formerly worked in the white collar public corruption section and I’m familiar with the perception and the issues that the public have with public corruption in the territory.”<\/p>\n
Walker also said that the territory’s department of justice must also lead in the area of fighting such crimes, adding that “everything is not simply to refer to the federal government. Although they have a role to play, we also have our responsibility as the people’s advocates to ensure that money that belongs to the people is properly spent as directed by the legislature.”<\/p>\n
Walker told The Consortium that he could not confirm or deny whether they were working on other cases aside from yesterday’s arrests. And when asked about the federal government’s seeming lack of involvement in the case, especially as it wrote the audit in regards to de Jongh repaying the GVI the funds spent to refurbish his home, Walker said the question would have to be directed to the feds.<\/p>\n
“I’m not sure why,” he admitted, “but we have our obligation to carry out our responsibilities and where we find violations of the law we have to act independently and take action.”<\/p>\n
Walker refused to answer whether the federal government collaborated on the case, and declined to make known if it had prior knowledge of the arrests. “What I can say is that we are capable of handling these types of cases, investigating and prosecuting them. This is not the first time we’ve had a public corruption case of significance in the territory. We know how to do it. We have an experienced staff of prosecutors and investigators.”<\/p>\n
Asked if there would be convictions as a result of the arrests, Walker said while he believes the DOJ has a “very strong case, it’s up to the jury to decide whether to convict and we have to allow it to play out.”<\/p>\n
He added: “But we believe in our case.”<\/p>\n
Back Story<\/strong><\/p>\n In a brief press conference held at Government at 10:00 a.m. on May 21, former Acting Attorney General Terri Griffiths revealed that the Kenneth Mapp administration had rejected former Governor John P. \u00a0de Jongh\u2019s payment to the Government of the Virgin islands<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(GVI), through the Department of Property and Procurement (DPP), of\u00a0$202,832.60,\u00a0for the guard house and electric fence constructed at his residence after taking office in 2007.<\/p>\n The sum was less than half of the $500,000 of government monies used on de Jongh\u2019s residence in Estate Mafolie, but according to the former leader, who served two terms and was the 7th elected governor of the territory, the $202,831.60 is the appraised, fair market value of the guard house and fence built for security measures at his private home.<\/p>\n Griffiths, however, disagreed. The acting AG said at the press conference that she wrote de Jongh a letter on the night of Wednesday, May 20, informing him that the\u00a0$202,831.60 sum was being returned, because it was less than the\u00a0$497,000.25 that the United States Inspector General\u00a0concluded in a report was owed to the GVI.<\/p>\n \u201cThe primary concern was, and continues to be, that the funds were improperly redirected from public roadways to the security improvement of your personal residence,\u201d Griffiths wrote in her letter to the former governor.<\/p>\n Griffiths said a document, dated Dec. 19, 2014 that de Jongh forwarded to the Dept. of Property and Procurement, which, along with the check, was subsequently forwarded to the Department of Justice, suggests that he has no legal obligation to return the misappropriated funds. The acting AG added that the governor tried to justify the sum of\u00a0$202,831.60, \u201cbased on a one-sided methodology, claiming depreciation and demolition costs of the improvements.\u201d<\/p>\n The letter added: \u201cYour unilateral terms run afoul of the findings and opinion of the U.S. Inspector General\u2019s office, and further does nothing to bring your misuse of government\u2019s funds within the confines of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n Griffiths said the DOJ cannot excuse or compromise the total misappropriated funds that were redirected from the roadway funds to de Jongh\u2019s Estate Mafolie residence. She said the GVI must fully access the consequences of the former governor\u2019s conduct and the resulting loss to the government to include any amount of restitution that may be due as a result.<\/p>\n \u201cAccordingly, we simply cannot accept your unilateral representation of your obligations to the government, and the Government of the Virgin Islands hereby returns your\u00a0$202,831.60, check,\u201d Griffiths wrote.<\/p>\n Griffiths said she asked de Jongh to direct any further communications regarding the check and the security improvements\u00a0to her, personally.<\/p>\n De Jongh took office in 2007, but instead of living at the Governor\u2019s mansion in Estate Catherineberg, he chose to\u00a0reside at his private residence \u2014 where Public Works spent over $490,000 erecting a fence, building a guard house and installing a camera system. The project was given the\u00a0green light after Public Works sought and received an opinion from the V.I. Attorney General\u2019s office, stating it was permissible to move ahead with the work once public interest was served and was the main reason for the expense.<\/p>\n But in 2010, the U.S. Interior Department inspector general\u2019s office concluded in a report that the renovations of de Jongh\u2019s private home with public funds, \u201cusurped the Legislature\u2019s authority to determine how to spend public funds\u201d and should be returned.<\/p>\n In his public statement, however, the governor recalled his version of the events that lead to him moving into his private home\u00a0while serving as governor of the Virgin Islands.<\/p>\n \u201cI was advised that to\u00a0renovate Estate Catharineberg for a family would require well over a year of construction at an\u00a0estimated cost in excess of $1.5 million\u2026 I also was informed that the estimated annual housing\u00a0expenses to be incurred at Catharineberg would be $80,000 per year, which over the course of\u00a0my eight year tenure as your Governor would have cost upwards of $640,000.<\/p>\n \u201cSimply put, the\u00a0costs associated with moving my family into Catharineberg would have meant an expenditure in\u00a0excess of $2.1 million of taxpayer money.\u00a0I did not consider the cost for such major renovations\u00a0to the property, or the additional annual costs associated to be appropriate. And so I decided to\u00a0remain at my personal residence,\u201d said the former governor.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cAs I approached the end of my second term as Governor, the Department of Property\u00a0and Procurement completed the established process for obtaining appraisals or valuations for\u00a0public purposes. The amount reimbursed was based on the averaging of the appraised values\u00a0presented by three independent, licensed appraisers commissioned by the Department of\u00a0Property and Procurement. The value of the security measures was determined to be\u00a0$222,631.60, and I accepted the valuation.\u201d<\/p>\n But DPP Commissioner nominee Randolph L. Bennett, said his department did some research and found three appraisals that were never mentioned in de Jongh\u2019s letter, valuating the security improvements at his residence at above $300,000. One of the appraisals were conducted by an agent who works for John Forester Real Estate<\/a><\/span>, according to Bennett. Another appraisal was conducted by\u00a0Elissa Runyon<\/a><\/span>, and a third by another St. Thomas firm with an average amount of $340,816.67 \u2014 which is above the funds that de Jongh returned to Property and Procurement.<\/p>\n De Jongh’s arraignment, along with that of Francis, will be held in two weeks, according to Walker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ST. CROIX — In a small room located at the Department of Justice in Castle Coakley, journalists gathered for an announcement that had already rocked the territory: the arrest of former Governor John P. de Jongh (and Julito Francis) by Acting Attorney General Claude Walker. The Consortium had already broken the news, although the publication’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[228,116,11,191,8,2474,147],"tags":[152,2999],"yoast_head":"\n