Miami-based contractor Adrian Foster has pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements about what she did with federal funds for two construction projects in the V.I. National Park on St. John.
According to court documents, Foster got contracts for work on the park’s visitor contact station restroom and the Cinnamon Bay Waste Water Treatment Facility and subcontracted the work to Rumina Construction. Then, according to Foster’s plea, she paid for some of the work but not all. She acknowledged that between 2014 and 2016 she filed forms with the federal government saying she had turned $133,000 over to Rumina when he had not.
The plea deal, signed by Foster on Aug. 22, requires her to make restitution of $133,000.
The charge carries a potential sentence of up to five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.
This is the second recent guilty plea involving outside contractors and federal funds. Bhaskar Patel, 67, of Windermere, Florida, pleaded guilty in August to taking kickbacks and bribes involving millions of dollars in federal contracts in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and the mainland. (See Kickback Scheme Touched On St. Croix, St. Thomas and Puerto Rico Contracts)
Editor’s Note: We initially had Adrian Foster’s gender incorrect. Foster is female.
