In a hastily called press conference Wednesday afternoon, Attorney General Iver Stridiron said that public corruption has cost the Virgin Islands government "hundreds of millions of dollars" over the last 10 years and that the governor has mandated that he "root out corruption in the territory."
The independence granted to the Office of the Inspector General and its joint efforts with the Public Corruption Task Force have been instrumental in uncovering and successfully prosecuting white collar crime, he said. But far more important, according to Stridiron, is Gov. Charles W. Turnbull's commitment to stemming the overwhelming tide of public corruption.
Stridiron said in the past there were "forces that restricted" the attorney general's ability to move on cases, but he said those days are over.
However, due to the lack of attorneys — there are only two prosecuting white collar criminal cases and one covering civil cases — he said the task force has to be very selective in choosing cases to prosecute. The easiest ones to prove, the "slam dunks," are prosecuted first, he said.
Stridiron described cases where employees were off the job for five years and still getting a paycheck, or instances where government employees clocked in and went off to other jobs, as being some of the easier cases to prosecute.
And though he lamented his personal distress at knowing many people who have become involved in what he called "troubling" and "widespread" corruption in the territory, he said it would not stop him from prosecuting them.
The more difficult cases will be prosecuted too, including those uncovered by the recent audit involving millions of dollars of improper and illegal unemployment tax refunds and credits issued to employers. He said the prosecution will extend to business people and employers who were involved in the falsification of records that left them with drastically reduced unemployment tax rates; in some instances records were completely wiped out of the computer system.
Guy H. Mitchell, chief of the criminal division, said though the paper trail is miles long, the investigation will not stop until the culprits have been uncovered and prosecuted.
The Public Corruption Task Force was formed in February 2000, on the same day that information was filed containing 14 counts of conspiracy, embezzlement and fraud against former Gov. Roy L. Schneider and three top officials of his administration. The charges were later dismissed after Schneider paid back nearly $50,000 to the territory.
Though the agenda for the press conference did not include discussion of violent crimes, Mitchell and Stridiron agreed they are getting tough on those too. In fact, Stridiron said he has instructed his prosecutors that if a gun is involved in a crime, there will be no plea bargaining.
Whether it is white collar or violent crime, the problem is the same: lack of resources.
Mitchell said the office could use 10 attorneys where there are now three in the white collar division. Stridiron said though there are approximately 50 attorneys in the V.I. Justice Department, the workload demands twice that many.
And there is only one investigator currently working with the Public Corruption Task Force. Mitchell said when faced with the man-hours it takes to follow paper trails, that isn't nearly enough.
The task force is close to putting the stamp of approval on an advertising campaign to encourage people to report corruption and illegal activities.
Inspector General Steven Van Beverhoudt said recently he was hopeful about getting enough money to hire two more investigators in his office as part of the Omnibus Bill of 2001.
