Ray Martinez, the former commissioner of the Virgin Islands Police Department, and Jenifer O’Neal, the former director of the Virgin Islands Office of Management and Budget, have been sentenced for their roles in a procurement fraud, bribery, and money laundering scheme.
Mr Martinez was sentenced to 10 years in prison and three years of supervised release, and Ms O’Neal was sentenced to seven years in prison last week.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Mr Martinez accepted nearly $100,000 in bribes from a government contractor, David Whitaker, who gave Mr Martinez cash and payments for luxury travel, personal expenses, private school tuition, and restaurant equipment.
In exchange for these payments, Mr Martinez used his official authority to approve invoices submitted by Mr Whitaker and also awarded Mr Whitaker’s company a $1.4 million contract funded by the American Rescue Plan Act.
Ms O’Neal, who served as the territory’s chief budget official, knowingly approved a $70,000 inflated invoice under that same contract and later accepted a $17,730 lease payment for her business, Java Grande, using federal funds from the inflated invoice.
The evidence also showed that after learning of the federal investigation, Mr Martinez attempted to obstruct justice by directing Mr Whitaker to destroy evidence and by creating a fraudulent promissory note to conceal the bribes.