Halloween is coming up, but something far scarier is taking place in our territory. A witch hunt of astronomical proportions has been conducted on one of our elected public officials by a private company, a publicly regulated monopoly that enjoys more-than-generous tax benefits.
Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg revealed this week that Vitelco — now known as Innovative Telephone — hired two private investigation companies four years ago to run exhaustive searches on his background and that of his mother, his father, his sister, his friends, his professional associates and his staff. The dossier that resulted is 6 inches high.
Innovative Telephone's parent company, Innovative Communication Corp., in a characteristically imperious stance, has offered no apology and shown no embarrassment for the egregious and likely illegal action. But a top ICC official has gone even further, blatantly defending the company's actions as justified on a radio talk show on Wednesday.
Holland Redfield II, ICC vice president for corporate affairs, told Sam Topp that Innovative was the injured party due to Donastorg's attacks over a number of years. Although Redfield called the talk show, he claimed he had not read the report, and he skirted questions Topp posed regarding the morality of the investigation.
He claimed such investigations are "routine" and "not unusual" for private or public officials. Donastorg found the investigation more than "routine," saying, "I knew the community would share my shock and horror at the idea of a private company investigating, not just me, but dozens of other Virgin Islanders."
The investigators burrowed into every possible nook and cranny in a futile effort to produce proof of wrongdoing by Donastorg or the others, or even any questionable sexual history of the senator. They found nothing.
The investigators searched out his mother's employment history and checked courts in every county in California where Donastorg went to school for criminal records. They found nothing.
The investigators checked out Donastorg's three local bank accounts and they found three balances, and this may get them in a lot of hot water. "It's a clear violation of federal banking laws," Donastorg said.
Redfield said the investigation was launched because Vitelco officials suspected an "unsavory" relationship between Donastorg and a telephone competitor. He said the company had reason to believe that Donastorg had flown to St. Lucia to a jazz festival on a corporate jet owned by AT&T. The senator said he has never been to St. Lucia in his life.
ICC could have saved a lot of money, reportedly upwards of $100,000, by asking its investigators to check the flight logs for the alleged travel.
The smoke and mirrors Redfield attempted to employ are transparent to a fault. Although the investigation was undertaken in 1998, Donastorg believes it is continuing. Lawsuits which the senator has pending against ICC companies were filed after that.
Topp mentioned on his show that the "specter of this kind of investigation raises concern and alarm." Indeed it does. Redfield seemed miffed that Donastorg has made the report public. What was the senator to do? Vitelco, or Innovative, obviously would have published any wrongdoing in banner headlines in The Virgin Islands Daily News, which is also owned by ICC.
In contrast, there is no mention of the matter in Thursday's Daily News, although the story dominated the news in other media Wednesday, along with coverage of a strike by ICC employees.
Donastorg wrote to the chair of the Public Services Commission, Desmond Maynard, asking that the PSC investigate the legality of the utility using funds obtained from ratepayers to investigate an individual. "If we have allowed this entity to operate in our territory as a monopoly with full tax benefits, does this not constitute an abuse of these privileges on Vitelco's part?" he asked Maynard. He added that the incident bodes ill for any member of the PSC: "If Vitelco can use its immense resources to try and embarrass or ruin me, couldn't they do the same to any member of the PSC who happens to disagree with their position?"
Innovative Telephone — and, by extension, ICC — is already holding the PSC hostage by not paying phone rate investigation assessments totaling more than $600,000. Its failure to do so is seriously hampering the commission's ability to function, which is what the PSC told Samuel Ebbesen, Innovative Telephone president, at a Monday meeting.
With Ebbesen steadfastly refusing to commit to paying any of the invoices, saying he didn't understand the accounting on them, the commission voted to require the phone company to pay $400,000 by Friday or face being sued for the full amount owed. The company has not paid any PSC invoices since July 2001.
The telephone company — again, with ICC — is holding this territory hostage, and with the exception of Donastorg, no public official is fighting back. If it could and did investigate Donastorg, what is to stop it from using the same shady process on others?
Will the investigations stop with Donastorg? Now that it has been made public, we know witch hunts are an accepted business practice of Innovative Telephone and ICC.
Although Redfield claims Innovative has "nothing to hide," his words don't wash. A company with "nothing to hide" doesn't spend its time and money chasing phantoms and tilting at windmills.
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