June 13, 2001 – A letter ostensibly from contractor Lucinda Oliver, a fugitive wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on bribery and other charges, has been received by The Avis newspaper, proclaiming her innocence but saying she will not return to the Virgin Islands to face her accusers.
The six-page letter was mailed from a city of about 300,000 people called Harleen in the southeast corner of The Netherlands. The sender was self-identified as "Cindy Oliver (Most Wanted List)" and gave no return address.
Oliver, a former contractor with Island Villas, was contracted to repair buildings at Castle Burke and Estate Adventure on St. Croix after the housing units were destroyed by Hurricane Marilyn in 1995. According to a federal indictment made public in February, Oliver did not complete the repairs but bribed a Housing, Parks and Recreation Department employee who wrote invoices for her expenses and allegedly completed work in exchange for cash payments and a 1994 Toyota Corolla.
Oliver fled the territory in 1999 and was rumored to be living in St. Martin. She has been featured on the "Virgin Islands Most Wanted" televison program.
The letter says Oliver did not defraud the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as charged, but did pay bribe money to housing officials.
"There is bribery and there is bribery. In my case, I did have to pay bribe money, not to get a contract, but to get paid for work already done," the letter states.
Oliver was indicted on charges of bribery, unlawful possession of two unlicenced handguns and giving false statements to authorities. She will not return to the Virgin Islands to face the charges because she would not receive a fair trial, according to the letter.
"I do not believe that I can get a fair trial on St. Croix. Besides, who would testify for me? The residents of [Estate] Adventure mostly work for the government, and the ones who would support me would be in trouble with the government. Castle Burke had many good people, but it had more bad ones working the system than good, honest ones," the letter states.
The Source was unable to verify that the letter was written by Oliver.
Alphonse Nibbs, former executive director of the V.I. Housing Authority, has said Oliver threatened his life. The letter also denies this. Nibbs has made several accusations publicly of corruption within V.I. housing agencies.
He told the Senate Housing, Parks and Recreation Committee on Monday that he has turned over "boxes" of documents to the FBI and FEMA that may implicate high-level housing officials in corruption schemes. However, he refused to detail his accusations at the hearing, citing a pending federal investigation into the matter.
