WASHINGTON, USA – Ray Martinez, the former Commissioner of the Virgin Islands Police Department (VIPD), and Jenifer O’Neal, the former Director of the Virgin Islands Office of Management and Budget (OMB), were sentenced this week for their roles in a procurement fraud, bribery, and money laundering scheme.
Martinez was sentenced to 10 years in prison and three years of supervised release, and O’Neal was sentenced to seven years in prison.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Martinez accepted nearly $100,000 in bribe payments from a government contractor, David Whitaker, who gave Martinez cash and payment for luxury travel, personal expenses, private-school tuition, and restaurant equipment. In exchange for these payments, Martinez used his official authority to approve invoices submitted by Whitaker and also awarded Whitaker’s company a $1.4 million contract funded by the American Rescue Plan Act. 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, Martinez attempted to obstruct justice by directing Whitaker to destroy evidence and by creating a fraudulent promissory note in an attempt to conceal the bribes.
Assistant attorney general A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, US attorney Adam Sleeper for the US Virgin Islands, and special agent in charge Carlos R. Goris of the FBI San Juan Field Office investigated the case.
The FBI San Juan Field Office, St Thomas Resident Agency investigated the case, with assistance from the Virgin Islands Office of Inspector General.
Trial attorney Alexandre Dempsey of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and assistant US attorney Cherrisse Amaro for the District of the Virgin Islands prosecuted the case.