Friday, May 26, 2023

Friday, May 26, 2023 very projects f. . John is currently mitigated with a steel plate. The !king to rehabilitate sections of the road. heard on onal Park ehabilitatc mon Bay of Honey- ;outhwest. House, an t between !aches. nent fail- s threaten suit in a sections construe- aid Kim second area of erosion. The project will involve instal- lation of a mechanically stabilized earth retaining wall at one site, and installation of a rock face trapezoi- dal rockery wall at the second site. In response to questioning from St. John CZM Committee member Rafe Boulon, Campo-Allen said native stone will be used, and the rockery wall's facade was chosen with the viewshed in mind. Campo-Allen said there are known archaeological sites close to, but not at, the two failing sections of road- Friday, May 26, 2023 VIRGIN ISLANDS The Virgin Islands Daily News 3 44 Epstein's primary conduit for spreading money and influence throughout the USVI government was First Lady deJongh. — Court documents filed by JPMorgan Chase lawyers Court filing claims ex-first lady was Epstein's local fixer By SUZANNE CARLSON Daily News Staff A court filing by lawyers for JPMorgan Chase accuses former Vir- gin Islands first lady Cecile deJongh of facilitating Jeffrey Epstein's abuse of women and girls by helping him influence local politicians, and says deJongh even asked Epstein to suggest changes to the territory's sex offender "Epstein's primary conduit for spreading money and influence throughout the USVI government was First Lady deJongh" who worked as Epuein's local fixer for two decades. including throughout her husband John deJongh 1cs tenure as V.I. gover- nor from 2007 to 2015. according to the filing. DeJongh told Epstein which govern- ment officials to pay oft', and devised ways to jlaify his victims' presence in the territory by enrolling them at the University of the Virgin Islands so they could obtain student visas, according to the filing. In a statement to The Daily News on Thursday, UVI President David Hall denied all allegations in the bank's filing. Attorneys for the bank say docu- ments obtained during the discovery process, which is still ongoing, show that deiongh asked Epstein — a registered sex offender - to suggest tr. duo territory% sex offender Former first lady Cecile deJongh and her husband, former Gov. John deJongh Jr. !cording to the tiling. "Lest there be doubt that Epstein's goal was to gain influence, First Lady deJongh explicitly advised Epstein on how to buy control of the USVI political class:" according to the filing. telling him "how to vote and whom to he would 'support [then-USVI sena- tor] Carlton Dome's bid to go hick to VIPA' who would be a 'good person for us' there." Prior to his election, Go' Albert Bryan Jr., in 2018. also "facilitated do- nations by Epstein to USVI's schools little le:woes:sand Epstein also lawsuit filed by the V.I. Justice Depart- ment in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The government has accused the bank of facilitating and profiting from Epsteins crimes. But attorneys for the bank say the government provided a safe haven for Epstein and allowed Who knew what, when? In the ongoing civil case, the bank has asserted several affirmative de- fenses. including that the VI. govern- ment has "unclean hands" because of officials' dealings with Epstein. The V.I. government has asked the court to deny certain affirmative defenses. Rut Ellsworth responded in the bank's latest filing that it's the V.I. government that bears responsibility for enabling Epstein's crimes. "To grant USVI immunity from these defenses would be to allow it to profit from Epstein twice: first directly, then again in a civil suit which it could just as easily see reflected in a inimx," according to the filing. A judge has not yet ruled on the dispute over affirmative defenses. Meanwhile, the bank's lawyers are naming Cecile de Jongh and other Virgin Islanders as key parties respon- sible for helping Epstein thrive in the territory, despite his status as a sex of- fender convicted of procuring children for prostitution in Florida in 2008. The V.I. Justice Department is re- sponsible for monitoring sex offenders in the territory, including Epstein. who claimed Little St. James island off St. Thomas as his primary residence for tuo decades before his August 2019 suicide. Several sections of Ellsworth's filing that remain partially redacted refer to the territory's lack of enforcement of EFTA00129016