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Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesHALF MILLION IN TOBACCO FUNDS ARRIVES IN APRIL

HALF MILLION IN TOBACCO FUNDS ARRIVES IN APRIL

The V.I. coffers got an infusion of more than half a million dollars on April 17 as the "first annual payment" of the territory's portion of the multibillion-dollar national tobacco lawsuit settlement.
The payment was actually the third that the Virgin Islands has received, but the earlier wire-transfer deposits into a government bank account, on Dec. 14 and 31 of last year, constituted "initial payments," according to a press release issued by the V.I. Justice Department Tuesday.
Attorney General Iver Stridiron said he received word from the auditing firm of Pricewaterhouse Coopers of the April wire transfer of $592,395.62 to a government savings account at Banco Popular.
He said the total received to date is nearly $1.4 million of "the estimated $50 million to be received by the Virgin Islands over the next 25 years." However, he added, the April payment was less than the $615,000 anticipated. The reason, he said, was that "because of reporting and computer errors by the tobacco companies," overpayments were made in December to the states and territories that were party to the lawsuit being settled. The reduced April payment reflects adjustment to compensate for the overpayment.
Stridiron said he has been told that if the settling states and territories enact "model legislation related to tobacco sales reporting" by June 15, projected reductions in their annual share of the settlement proceeds "will be minimized." The Justice Department "will present a draft of the legislation to the governor for his consideration," he said.

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