Two Virgin Islands Commissioners Sentenced in $1.4 Million Bribery and Kickback Scheme

    WASHINGTON, Aug. 14 /EMWNews/ -- The former commissioners

of the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources

(DPNR) and the Department of Property and Procurement (P&P) were sentenced

to nine and seven years in prison, respectively, for their roles in a $1.4

million bribery and kickback scheme, Acting Assistant Attorney General

Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Anthony J.

Jenkins of the District of the Virgin Islands announced today. Chief Judge

Curtis V. Gomez also ordered a money judgment of $1,086,237 and $960,482

against the former commissioners, respectively, and sentenced them both to

three years of supervised release.







    Former DPNR Commissioner Dean C. Plaskett, 43, and former P&P

Commissioner Marc A. Biggs, 42, were found guilty on Feb. 27, 2008,

following a two-week jury trial, of demanding and accepting bribes and

kickbacks in connection with the award of a $650,000 government contract to

a shell company. Plaskett was also convicted on two counts of obstruction

of justice, stemming from his efforts to conceal the bribery and kickback

scheme from federal and local investigators as well as a grand jury.

Specifically, evidence at trial revealed that Plaskett attempted to have

fictitious documents created and backdated to falsely document work never

done by the same shell company on a different government contract valued at

$130,000.



    According to court documents, including the Nov. 8, 2007, indictment

returned against Plaskett and Biggs, the bribery and kickback scheme began

in early 2000 and continued through early 2004, and involved at least three

government agencies and the award of more than $1.4 million in government

contracts. Despite little or no work having been performed on any of these

contracts, Plaskett and Biggs and other government officials authorized

more than $1 million in progress payments. Plaskett, Biggs and others would

then split the illicit contract proceeds. Also according to the indictment,

in late 2004 and continuing through June 2005, when the bribery and

kickback scheme became the subject of a joint multi-agency federal and

local investigation as well as a grand jury investigation, Plaskett

spearheaded a second illicit scheme designed to obstruct justice.



    To date, four individuals, including three additional U.S. Virgin

Islands government officials, have pleaded guilty to felony charges as a

result of this investigation. Former DPNR Director of the Division of

Environmental Protection Hollis L. Griffin, former Virgin Islands Fire

Service employee Earl E. Brewley and Atlanta, Ga., businessman Esmond J.

Modeste have pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the federal program

bribery statute, honest services mail fraud and structuring currency

transactions to further the underlying bribery and kickback scheme. Griffin

was sentenced on May 3, 2007, to four years in prison; Modeste on May 16,

2007, to 30 months in prison; and Brewley on May 16, 2007, to 21 months in

prison. Griffin, Modeste and Brewley were also ordered to pay restitution

in the approximate amount of $1.1 million.



    Additionally, former DPNR Director of Permits Brent E. Blyden pleaded

guilty to conspiring to obstruct the joint federal and local investigation

and the grand jury investigation into the bribery and kickback scheme. He

faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, $125,000

in restitution and $20,000 in criminal forfeiture.



    This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Armando O. Bonilla,

Michael Ferrara and Peter M. Koski of the Criminal Division's Public

Integrity Section, headed by Chief William M. Welch II, in coordination

with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of the Virgin Islands.

Department of Justice Trial Attorney John P. Pearson participated in the

investigation of this matter. The matter continues to be investigated by a

task force comprised of the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal

Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency Office of the Inspector General. The Virgin

Islands Office of the Inspector General also assisted in this

investigation.