Nov. 26, 2008 — The former Office of Insular Affairs' V.I. desk officer in the Department of the Interior has been charged with accepting payments from businessmen for making appointments with "government officials in the Virgin Islands," according to the Washington Post.
Neither the officials nor the businesspeople were named, but the story identifies Edgar A. Johnson, 59, a career civil servant. For many years he served as the desk officer at Interior, the one person in the department who worked full time on V.I. matters. According to the Post, he left the government last year. His final position was director of the OIA's small technical-assistance program, which provides small grants to the various island territories.
He was charged with "one count of honest-services wire fraud," a felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $250,000, the Post said. No arraignment date has been set. Wire fraud is usually defined as a criminal activity that involves the use of the telephone or electronic communication.
Johnson, "whose annual salary was $121,000, used his position to obtain illegal payments from businesses seeking deals with the Virgin Islands," according to the Post. "He accepted $10,000 during a meeting on Aug. 21, 2007, in exchange for introducing unnamed business officials to senior government officials 'so those individuals could pitch insurance business,' according to court documents."
The Post went on to say that Johnson received "an award from former Virgin Islands governor Roy L. Schneider for helping transfer Water Island … from federal ownership to the local government in 1996."
The V.I. desk officer is now former territorial senator Basil Ottley Jr., who left the legislature earlier this year to take the position. (See "Ottley Leaves Senate for Government Job in Washington.")
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