May 3, 2007 — The former director of the Department of Planning and Natural Resources' Division of Environmental Protection has been sentenced to four years in prison for conspiring to defraud the V.I. government of approximately $1.4 million, according to a Department of Justice release issued Thursday.
In addition to the four-year prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper sentenced Hollis L. Griffin, 43, to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay more than $1 million in restitution.
In June 2006, Griffin — along with Fire Services employee Earl E. Brewley and Esmond J. Modeste, the purported project manager of Elite Technical Services, a fictitious company — was formally charged with conspiracy to commit bribery, fraud and structuring, a federal offense similar to money laundering (See "Two Plead Guilty to Defrauding V.I. Government").
According to court documents, in early 2000, Griffin, Brewley, Modeste and others formed Elite and then used the fictitious company, as well as other companies, to seek and be awarded at least seven government contracts valued at approximately $1.4 million.
Although little or no actual work was performed on the contracts — which were awarded by DPNR and the Department of Property and Procurement and the V.I. Fire Service — payments totaling over $1.1 million were made to Elite and the other companies.
Once the contract proceeds were paid to Elite and the other companies, Brewley, Modeste and others paid bribes and kickbacks totaling between $300,000 and $350,000 to at least four V.I. government officials, including Griffin.
According to the release, a series of $9,900 cash withdrawals — totaling over $350,000 — were allegedly made by Brewley, Modeste and others after depositing certain contract proceeds into FirstBank, Wachovia, and Banco Popular. Like Brewley and Modeste, Griffin admitted that these cash withdrawals were made in order to pay the bribes and kickbacks in cash, and avoid the filing of currency transaction reports by the local banks.
Brewley and Modeste pleaded guilty to the charges in July 2006 and are scheduled to be sentenced May 11.
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