The following is a statement from V.I. Attorney General Denise George.
I am very disappointed that the 33rd Legislature chose to reject and redirect the funding necessary to reestablish and rebuild the previously dismantled “White Collar Crime and Public Corruption Section” of the VIDOJ, as was proposed in Governor Bryan’s 2020 supplemental budget. As a result, the VIDOJ does not have the 2020 funding to begin rebuilding the unit in order to perform our legal responsibility of instituting “aggressive prosecution of white collar crime and corruption” as mandated by law in Title 3 V.I.C. 118.
Governor Bryan’s proposed VIDOJ supplemental budget funded the new positions necessary to begin the rebuilding process since the original VIDOJ 2020 budget, which was submitted months before I became AG, was not sufficient to fund the new positions needed for the unit. While the Legislature controls the purse strings of this government, it was my hope that it would have chosen to fund the white collar crime and corruption unit as a priority. I believe it is unwise to let white collar crime and corruption go unchecked within our government.
Denise George, Attorney General for the Virgin Islands
