Responding to media requests after an April V.I. Inspector General report finding 85 percent of its loans badly delinquent, the V.I. Economic Development Authority has released the names of delinquent debtors – but former and sitting senators with delinquent loans were left off the list.
The audit, which was requested by EDA, found 383 of the 453 loans – 84.5 percent – in EDA’s nine loan programs were past due at least 30 days.
Most of those, 365 loans totaling $8 million, were past due more than 120 days. And of that amount, $7 million is classified as "uncollectible" because it is delinquent more than a year.
EDA’s Small Business Development Authority loans have, by far, the worst performance with $4.9 million in delinquent loans, or 94.5 percent of its total loan portfolio of $5.4 million.
The best performing EDA loans are Economic Development loans, where a still-dismal one-third of its $395,000 in loans is delinquent.
Many of the bad SBDA and other loans date back decades. At the end of 2010, SBDA had 211 delinquent loans on its books that were awarded between 1971 and 1999, totaling almost $3.7 million.
Overall EDA has $8.5 million in delinquent loans – or 84.5 percent of its loan portfolio of $10.5 million – and nearly $2 million of that is for long-delinquent loans owed by readily findable, prominent Virgin Islanders, according to V.I. Inspector General Steven van Beverhoudt.
His office identified 14 loans valued at $1.86 million owed by former and current senators and well-known business leaders in the territory.
Those include:
– A current senator who received an SBDA loan in 1985 of $20,000 and, as of Sept. 30, 2010, still owed $8,449 in principal with a total loan pay-off of $21,464;
– A former senator who received an SBDA loan in May 1982 for $100,000 and, as of Sept.30, 2010, owed $95,706 with a total loan pay-off balance of $143,232;
– A "prominent business person" who received two $150,000 loans in 2000 and 2001 and currently owes, for one loan, $146,254 in principal with a total loan pay-off of $296,881 and, for the other, owes $149,326 in principal and $302,421 in total;
– A "prominent contractor" who received an SBDA loan in March 1973 for $75,852, still owes $75,252 in principal and $132,503 altogether.
The EDA released a list of those holding delinquent SBDA loans, without dates or amounts, late Monday night. [Delinquent EDA Loans, Dates, Amounts] Along with the list was a brief statement from EDA Chief Executive Officer Percival Clouden, saying the list represents borrowers who are more than 150 days delinquent, and that EDA will submit a complete list, including all outstanding balances, by Friday.
Early Tuesday morning, the Source emailed EDA spokesperson Semele George asking about the omission of the current and former senator mentioned in the audit. George responded quickly, saying the "questions have been relayed to VIEDA officials for their review."
Tuesday evening, George sent a document containing loan amounts and dates for EDA’s other loan programs, but not SBDA. There was no information about the discrepancy between the auditor’s report of senators owing on SBDA loans and the absence of senators on EDA’s list of delinquent loans.
However, the loan information sent Tuesday evening included a note saying the list does not include borrowers who have court judgments against them; who have filed for bankruptcy; who have set up a payment plan with EDA; and those who have made an offer in compromise to pay off part of their debts. The list of exceptions suggests it is possible EDA is protecting the identities of these elected V.I. officials who borrowed large sums from the V.I. government in the 1980s and made no effort to pay it off for the next quarter century because they have made a very recent offer in compromise or very recently set up a payment plan.
Or there may be another reason EDA is not disclosing the names of these elected public officials who borrowed public money for their personal use and then, for decades, declined to make payments on their loans. No information about the current and former senators’ loans was provided as of 11 p.m. Tuesday.
