The White Collar Crime Section of the Virgin Islands Department of Justice, under the supervision of a Director, was established pursuant to the statutory mandate of Section 118, of Title 3 of the Virgin Islands Code, which provides the following:
§ 118. White Collar Crime Section
There is hereby established within the Department of Justice a White Collar Crime and Public Corruption Section to institute aggressive prosecution of white collar crime and corruption, which crimes fall within the jurisdiction of the Attorney General under Virgin Islands statutes, or which the Attorney General is authorized to prosecute with the consent of the United States Attorney.
Powers and Duties
In fulfilling its mandate of instituting “aggressive prosecution of white collar crime and corruption,” the White Collar Crime Section is charged with the criminal investigation and prosecution of white collar and public corruption offenses generated by private citizen complaints and referrals from other law enforcement agencies. There are two functional components of the White Collar Crime Section:
Prosecution
To carry out the most significant of its functions, the White Collar Crime Section is staffed with Assistant Attorneys General (AAGs) who provide legal advice and consultation to law enforcement in the investigative stages of a case, evaluate evidence and make determinations of what charges, if any, may be laid based upon the evidence presented by law enforcement agents. The AAGs are the prosecutors who file charges with the courts and bring the case to trial and full prosecution.
Cases are referred to the White Collar Crime Section for prosecution from other law enforcement agencies, including the Virgin Islands Police Department, the Virgin Islands Inspector General Office, and the Virgin Islands Bureau of Internal Revenue, as well as private citizen complaints filed by persons directly with WC or the Attorney General.
Investigation
Individual citizen white collar/public corruption complaints to WC are investigated in-house by WC or the Special Investigations Division (SID). WC staffs an investigative accountant who is a peace officer and a certified fraud examiner whose expertise is to conduct primarily financial investigations of complex white collar complaints filed with the Attorney General or WC.