Gittens: Virgin Islands DOJ White Collar Crime Unit Would Pay for Itself
CHRISTIANSTED — Senator Kenneth Gittens said that a local program to aggressively fight white collar crime would most likely pay for itself.
“When we go after crimes like fraud, corruption and tax evasion it often means we also curtail losses to the Government or even gain new revenue,” Senator Gittens said. “For this reason, it is completely counter intuitive to cut funding for programs to combat white collar crimes.”
Senator Gittens said he shared the concerns expressed this week by Governor Albert A. Bryan and Attorney General Denise George about the 33rd Legislature’s removal of funding for the territory’s White Collar Crime and Corruption Unit.
“I commend my colleagues on the Finance Committee for their hard work on the FY 2020 Budget, but cutting funds to fight this kind of wrongdoing is a huge misstep, particularly at a time when we have all these big dollar public and private hurricane recovery projects in play,” Senator Gittens said. “I am also quite concerned about the lack of adequate funding for the Virgin Islands Inspector General’s Office.”
Read more: https://vifreepress.com/2019/10/gittens-vidoj-white-collar-crime-unit-would-pay-for-itself/