The government is recommending a 22-month prison sentence followed by three years of supervised release for David Whitaker, the convicted felon turned cybersecurity contractor who became a cooperating witness against three former high-ranking government officials and a local business owner.
Whitaker pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and one count of bribery in September 2024, three months after former V.I. Commissioner Ray Martinez and former Management and Budget Director Jenifer O’Neal resigned amid a federal investigation into government contracts awarded to Whitaker’s company, Mon Ethos Pro Support. Martinez and O’Neal were indicted in January 2025, accused of approving inflated invoices in exchange for expensive gifts, tuition payments, luxury travel and a down payment on O’Neal’s coffee shop.
Separately, former Sports, Parks and Recreation Commissioner Calvert White and business owner Benjamin Hendricks were indicted at the same time for their own dealings with Whitaker, which included selling a $2.1 million surveillance camera contract in exchange for a $16,000 kickback.
Whitaker testified during both trials. In both, defense attorneys set out to paint Whitaker as an unreliable witness with his own extensive history of fraud and white-collar crime. Attorneys for Martinez and O’Neal repeated those arguments in requests for new trials following their convictions in December. U.S. District Court Judge Mark Kearney denied the requests last week and noted that jurors in the case also reviewed recorded phone conversations, text messages, bank statements and other evidence before deciding to convict the former cabinet members.
“The United States presented ample evidence of the senior public officials violating federal law. But it went further,” Kearney wrote, adding that Martinez and O’Neal knew what they were doing when they sold out the public trust to fund their dreams of restaurant and cafe entrepreneurship while continuing to draw government salaries. “The former public officials presented every argument. The jury, informed by unchallenged jury instructions presented after extensive discussions with counsel, found their arguments unpersuasive.”
U.S. Justice Department trial attorney Alexandre Dempsey noted Whitaker’s criminal past in a sentencing memorandum filed Wednesday. Whitaker was convicted of bank fraud in 1997 and, while on supervised release, his supervision was revoked twice. He was convicted of forging checks in 2000 and again in 2008 for selling millions in electronic equipment that he never delivered to customers.
Whitaker then worked with the FBI in a sting operation that led to a $500 million fine for the search giant Google for its facilitation of online illegal drug sales.
“The public deserves to have federal funds used for the benefit of the citizenry,” Dempsey wrote. “The defendant’s selfishness and greed hurt the very community that was supposed to receive the federal benefit dollars implicated in this case. Whitaker must be held accountable, particularly given his willingness to once again choose the path of crime rather than follow the law.”
Whitaker’s sentencing is scheduled for June 10, the day after Martinez’s sentencing hearing and the day before O’Neal’s. Prosecutors have asked that Martinez be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison and that O’Neal be sentenced to seven.
