Tag: virgin islands

US Suspends Sending Funds to Virgin Islands Housing Authority, Citing Corruption

The U.S. government moved on July 20 to suspend funding for the U.S. Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority after investigators uncovered what officials called widespread corruption, leaving residents still struggling to rebuild from the twin Category 5 hurricanes that slammed the territory nearly a decade ago.

Housing Secretary Scott Turner announced the suspension, saying an investigation by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) found “widespread financial mismanagement, inadequate fraud controls, false certifications and improper payments.” The probe remains ongoing.

Nine years after Congress approved $1.9 billion in disaster recovery money, the authority has spent just $570 million, representing less than one-third of the total.

“This failure has, to date, deprived Virgin Islanders of roughly $1.3 billion worth of assistance that Congress intended them to have,” the department stated in a July 20 letter to the head of the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority.

The letter went further, declaring that the authority’s “record demonstrates that it is an abysmal steward of taxpayer funds.”

The authority did not immediately return a request for comment.

The numbers show a stalled recovery. Investigators found that the authority completed only two of 95 planned single-family rental rehabilitation projects and none of 329 single- and multi-family housing projects. As of May, it had spent just 2 percent of its electrical grid recovery funding. At the same time, more than half the grant money set aside for administrative costs had already been spent.

The authority also sought $6.2 million in disaster-related funds that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had already paid.

Turner accused officials on social media of prioritizing “kickbacks over helping families recover from disasters.”

The authority’s former chief operating officer, Darin Richardson, who oversaw disaster recovery programs, is currently in federal prison after convictions on fraud and money-laundering charges. According to Turner, that official inflated a lumber contract meant to rebuild hurricane-damaged homes from $3 million to $4.5 million, took a $107,000 kickback, “and let the lumber rot in the sun, rendering it useless—a waste of taxpayer funds.”

In February, the executive director of the housing authority, Eugene Jones Jr., resigned as local legislators pressed questions about $4.2 million that remained untapped with a September spending deadline approaching. Virgin Islands State Sen. Kurt Vialet accused the former director of “just sitting there with a smug look.”

“The Housing Finance Authority is not building. You can’t be upset at senators being frustrated,” Vialet was quoted as saying by the St. Thomas Source, a local news site.

Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 storm, struck the U.S. Virgin Islands in September 2017. Roughly two weeks later, Hurricane Maria, also a Category 5, hit St. Croix. The territory has yet to fully recover.

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Brit anti-corruption cop is found dead in his car submerged in the sea off the British Virgin Isles: Family’s fury as death is ruled ‘an unfortunate accident’

A British anti-corruption police officer has been found dead in his car submerged in the sea off the British Virgin islands, with his family saying they fear a cover-up.

Paul France, 61, was part of a team that investigated organised crime and corruption in the British overseas territory.

The father-of-four was found dead in his car on October 7, his vehicle completely submerged in sea water off the coast of Tortola, the BVI’s largest island.

According to reports, the discovery of the ex-Greater Manchester Police detective came just hours after drugs and guns were seized in raids.

Police chiefs on the island passed the case to the coroner, but the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force force told The Sun newspaper that his death was an ‘unfortunate accident’.

An inquest into the incident also appears to have been scrapped, the publication reported.

This has sparked anger among Mr France’s family, who believe there is more to his death, and has rattled his colleagues.

‘Everyone thinks the same thing. How do you end up in the ocean?’ Anne, Mr France’s niece who is from Bolton, told The Sun.

‘We are angry we have been left in the dark.’

A source told the newspaper that Mr France’s death in October has left his police colleagues rattled.

‘It has unnerved a lot of them. They’re not wanted there,’ the source said.

However, officials on the island say they don’t believe any foul play has taken place.

Instead, they suspect a ‘medical episode’ or a ‘malfunction with the vehicle’ is the most likely explanation, Police Commissioner Mark Collins said in October.

‘I have nothing that suggests any foul play has taken place,’ he said.

‘I don’t think we can rule out a medical episode and I don’t think we can rule out a malfunction with the vehicle. I’m not going to go into the investigation because the file will be made available of course to the Coroner’s Court, but to answer your question, I don’t think he’s the type of guy that would have committed suicide.’

Mr France had been a police officer either in the UK or the BVI for 40 years, according to local reports in the aftermath of his death in October.

The vehicle was found off the coast of Tortola’s capital of Road Town, in the Waterfront area, which is close to Queen Elizabeth II Park.

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