IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS DIVISION OF ST. THOMAS AND ST. JOHN
IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF: IVAN ANTONIO JOHNSON Deceased.PROBATE No. ST-1993-PB-93 NOTICE OF HEARING ON FINAL ACCOUNT
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Final Accounting having been filed with the Superior Court in the probate of the estate of said deceased, it was ordered on the 13th day of May 2026, by the Court that all interested persons objecting to the Final Account are directed to appear in Courtroom No. 3 of the Magistrate Division of the Superior Court at Barbel Plaza South at 10:00 a.m. on the 26th day of June 2026, where the final hearing shall be held.
All objections, if any, shall be served in writing upon the undersigned attorney for the estate before the above date for final hearing.
Respectfully Submitted, LAW OFFICES OF KELSHA P. WILLIAMS Dated: May 20, 2026 By: /s/ Kelsha P. Williams, Esq. Kelsha P. Williams, Esq. Attorney for the Estate 5212 Wimmelskafts Gade, Ste. 200 St. Thomas, Virgin Islands 00802-6404 Telephone: (340) 774-2100 E-mail: kelsha.williams@pkwilliamslaw.com VIRGIN ISLANDS BAR No. R2076
The sounds of gloves hitting heavy bags and jump ropes striking the floor have become more than training routines inside the USVI Boxing Gym on St. Croix. For coach Oto Ortiz and the young men he works with, they represent discipline, resilience, and what many hope is the continued revival of boxing in the Virgin Islands.
That resurgence was on display recently when a team of local boxers traveled to Caguas, Puerto Rico, to compete in the 22nd edition of the José “Cheo” Aponte Tournament, held May 14-16. The international competition brought together fighters from Puerto Rico, Colombia, Ecuador, Canada, and the Virgin Islands. The tournament, held annually in honor of a champion boxer from Caguas, also dedicated this year’s edition to Puerto Rico Boxing Federation Vice President Candy Rivera, who is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment after a cancer diagnosis.
Representing the Virgin Islands were Wesley Santana, Christian Diaz, and Jomar Ortiz — another opportunity, Oto Ortiz said, to rebuild a boxing culture he believes had grown quiet over the years.
“There’s been kind of like a silence when it came to traveling and the guys competing for quite some time now,” Ortiz said. “I saw that the guys had the drive for it. I didn’t want to see the talent go to waste.”
Ortiz said he began organizing travel opportunities and competitions for fighters — often through fundraising efforts and personal sacrifices — because he believed athletes needed ring experience to continue developing.
“You have to go through the trials to actually improve and to become better as you go along your journey,” he said.
The competition in Puerto Rico proved challenging from the opening bell.
“There was good boxing,” Ortiz said. “Canada had boxers in almost every finals.”
Jomar Ortiz competed in the youth 110-pound division and delivered one of the Virgin Islands’ biggest moments of the tournament, defeating a boxer from Ecuador in the finals. The victory carried extra meaning after he had previously lost to an Ecuadorian fighter during another international competition.
“I felt accomplished,” Jomar Ortiz said. “It felt almost like a revenge moment.”
Before reaching the finals, he also defeated a Puerto Rican boxer he had faced earlier this year during the Copa Félix Trinidad tournament in Puerto Rico. Although he returned to St. Croix before the tournament concluded because of a prior commitment, organizers were so impressed with his performance that the president of the Puerto Rico Boxing Federation honored him with a championship belt — recognition Ortiz described as a proud moment for the team.
Christian Diaz competed in the youth 121-pound division and lost a split decision to a Puerto Rican boxer during opening-day competition. Santana also fell by split decision against a member of Puerto Rico’s Olympic team.
“It was really, really close,” Ortiz said. “I thought he had it, but he didn’t get the decision.”
The tournament atmosphere itself left an impression. Livestream coverage featured commentators, multiple camera angles, and championship ceremonies — elements Ortiz said added excitement for the athletes.
For many fighters inside the gym, competing regionally and internationally has become increasingly familiar after years of travel throughout the Caribbean and the mainland United States. Jomar Ortiz, now 18, first started boxing during the pandemic and fought his first bout around age 13.
“My dad’s commitment to it inspired me,” he said. “I just love the feeling of it — the adrenaline.”
Competing in Puerto Rico, he said, brings its own unique energy because of passionate home crowds.
“You know you’re winning when you have the crowd silent,” he said.
For Keyinde McIntosh, boxing started with a simple decision while he was in high school.
“One day I just got off the bus and went into the gym,” McIntosh said. “And that was it.”
Now 27, McIntosh said boxing taught him consistency and discipline after years of waiting for opportunities to compete.
Eric Thompson, 28, who is training for the Central American and Caribbean Championships later this summer, said sports shaped his life growing up in California.
“You were either taken by the streets or saved by sports,” Thompson said. “I was saved by sports.”
Thompson moved to St. Croix in 2014 and eventually found his way into boxing before connecting with Ortiz after Hurricane Maria. Since then, he said, Ortiz has become one of the driving forces behind keeping boxing alive on St. Croix.
“This gym wouldn’t even be here right now without him,” Thompson said. “He sacrificed his blood, sweat and tears for us.”
Thompson said Ortiz has not only trained athletes but personally supported travel expenses, equipment purchases, and competition costs.
“He’s very selfless,” Thompson said. “When we’re here, he’s here.”
Funding remains one of the biggest challenges facing the program.
Over the years, Ortiz said, the gym has relied on water sales, community fundraisers, and support from the Virgin Islands Boxing Federation to help cover travel costs. Most recently, Federation President Tony Rosario helped create fundraising opportunities during the Buju Banton concert on St. Croix. Ortiz said support from the federation and the Virgin Islands Olympic Committee will also help fund upcoming international competitions, including the Central American and Caribbean Championships.
Despite the obstacles, Ortiz believes boxing in the Virgin Islands is beginning to regain momentum.
“I totally agree that it’s growing again,” he said. “It wasn’t really a priority before, but now we’re seeing these athletes come up and represent.”
For fighters inside the gym, boxing has become about much more than wins and losses.
“It starts mentally first,” former boxer Christian Perez said while describing the discipline required to train consistently. “If you beat yourself up mentally, you already lose.”
Ortiz hopes the next generation continues growing through the sport — both inside and outside the ring.
“It takes discipline to show up every day,” he said. “You just got to show up.”
The three co-defendants in the alleged Tootsys sex-trafficking conspiracy pleaded not guilty at their arraignment Wednesday morning in federal court on St. Thomas. U.S. Magistrate Judge G. Alan Teague set a July 13 trial date.
The trio — Hussein Jamil, Magda Castro Santos, and Julio Hidalgo de Pena — remain jailed while the court considers the conditions of their release. Castro Santos and Hidalgo de Pena have been granted bail but have yet to be released while a suitable third-party custodian is found for Hidalgo de Pena, and because Castro Santos’ wife is one of the alleged victims and they share an apartment with both their names on the lease, according to court documents and Wednesday’s proceedings. That presents a problem because under her bail conditions, Castro Santos may not have contact with any of the victims or anyone who worked at Tootsys, a strip club in Red Hook that Jamil owned and operated.
VIPD agents raided the club and a Bolongo Bay residence where the dancers were allegedly housed on April 17. Jamil, Castro Santos and Hidalgo de Pena are charged with conspiracy to transport for the purpose of prostitution, conspiracy to commit interstate and foreign travel or transportation in aid of racketeering enterprises, and conspiracy to harbor aliens for financial gain — punishable by a maximum of 10 years in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Jamil, portrayed as the ringleader of the alleged operation in a 15-page indictment handed down May 13, was initially denied bond but his attorneys filed a motion for the reconsideration of his detention on Monday, noting that his brother and sister-in-law are willing to be third-party custodians and have him live at their home while he awaits trial. The government has 14 days to respond to that proposal.
As for Hidalgo de Pena, his attorney said a suitable third-party custodian may have been found and asked that he remain in custody on St. Thomas and not be transferred elsewhere until the matter can be settled with the court and pretrial services. After conferring with a U.S. Marshal, Teague said that while “nothing can be assured,” the officer indicated Hidalgo de Pena can be held on island “at least for a little while.”
According to the indictment, which covers a period from June 2019 to 2026, Jamil owned and operated Tootsys, Hidalgo de Pena served as the driver for the dancers and otherwise assisted in operating the club, and Castro Santos, also known as Tatiana, was the manager. It said Jamil and Hidalgo de Pena both lived at Bolongo 25, the residence in Bolongo Bay, where the women Jamil recruited also lived.
The women, who hailed from the U.S. mainland, Latin America and Caribbean countries, were “encouraged, facilitated and pressured” to engage in commercial sex acts once they arrived on St. Thomas, and made to pay $100 to $200 a week to live at Bolongo 25, despite Jamil, also known as Tony, advertising free housing as part of working at Tootsys, according to the indictment.
Additionally, it alleges the dancers “had to pay a $40 to $60 ‘buy-in’ fee every night merely to be able to work at Tootsys,” and $500 for every night of work they missed, and other fees for arriving late to work. “Illegal alien dancers incurred additional debts to Jamil to the extent Jamil arranged or otherwise facilitated their smuggling transportation to the USVI,” including having sex with him, it said.
According to the indictment, a person identified as “Co-Conspirator 1” introduced “Jane Doe 4” to Jamil between June and August 2019 and had previously arranged for her to be smuggled from St. Martin to St. Thomas to work at the co-conspirator’s club. On more than one occasion, that person “loaned” the woman to Jamil and Tootsys so she could engage in commercial sex acts with the customers, with the two men splitting the money she earned, it said. Jamil subsequently used her to recruit other women, the indictment alleges.
Around September 2022, he used his American Express credit card to purchase a plane ticket for Jane Doe 5 to fly from the U.S. mainland to work at Tootsys and live at Bolongo 25, it said. It was there that she learned the Venezuelan women she worked with at the club had been brought to St. Thomas from the British Virgin Islands, it said. “When Jane Doe 5 refused to have sex with Jamil, Jamil demanded reimbursement for the airfare he had paid for her and suggested that Jane Doe 5 pay off her debt by engaging in commercial sex with Tootsys customers,” the indictment alleges.
That same month, Jamil used his credit card to purchase a plane ticket for Jane Doe 6 to fly from the mainland U.S. to St. Thomas, where she also resided at Bolongo 25. “While Jane Doe 6 worked at Tootsys, Castro Santos collected the dancers’ fees and constantly pressured the dancers to make money, while Hidalgo de Pena cleaned the club, worked as a runner, and drove the dancers back and forth between Bolongo 25 and Tootsys,” according to the indictment.
In another case, Jane Doe 9 was smuggled from the BVI to St. Thomas in August 2021 by entering St. John “at a place other than a designated port of entry,” it says. After she arrived on St. John, a co-conspirator “whose identity is unknown to the grand jury” transported her to the ferry terminal so she could take the boat to St. Thomas. Once there, Jamil charged her a “smuggling fee,” which she paid off by having sex with him three times, the indictment says.
While working at Tootsys, Castro Santos “pushed and pressured” Jane Doe 9 to engage in commercial sex acts with customers and “told her that she was not going to make money by just dancing and needed to take advantage of the fact that customer wanted her,” it says. She ultimately did so and was paid in cash because she was not a U.S. citizen, according to the indictment. She left for her homeland, but returned around November 2022, again through the BVI, and worked at Tootsys for eight to nine months while engaging in commercial sex acts, it says. To repay her “smuggling fee” she had sex with Jamil three times, it says.
The indictment, which details the ads posted on social media to recruit dancers, says that in December 2019 Jamil sent a message to an Instagram account pertaining to a self-described dancer from Australia, including a breakdown of pricing at Tootsys, such as for a “buyout” and the “champagne room.”
According to the indictment, the message stated: “Hi there I own a small gentleman’s club here on Saint Thomas US Virgin Islands we are always looking for beautiful dancers I saw your Instagram you are very beautiful I will love to have you dance at my club The club will pay for your airfare to the island provide you with housing and transportation to and from work Saint Thomas is a tropical island so it’s very Sunny all year round you can vacation during the day on the beach swim jet ski scuba dive pictures whatever you like work at night work is from 8:30 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. Lap dances are $30 pro son 20 to the dance 10 to the club champagne Room is $500 half an hour $300 to the dancer $200 to the club and a buyout if a customer wanna buy you out and you want to go it’s a $1000 500 to dancer 500 to club all tips on stage of course are yours tip out is $60 that covers house club and transportation.”
While Jane Doe 8 worked at Tootsys, Jamil and Castro Santos controlled payments from customers who used the Chandelier Room and required customers to provide ID to “buy out” a dancer, which Castro Santos photographed to send to Jamil, because his permission was required for such transactions, according to the indictment.
On one occasion, Castro Santos deducted money from Jane Doe 8’s cut of a stint in the Chandelier Room because she refused to have sex with a customer and was made to return his money because he had paid for her to engage in sex acts, its says.
“The defendants established and maintained a group chat on WhatsApp to communicate with dancers and other employees of Tootsys regarding the rules and activities of their unlawful commercial sex enterprise,” according to the indictment. They also communicated via their cell phones when customers wanted to take dancers off site, and wrote checks to Tootsys’ corporate bank account for Hidalgo de Pena to cash and pay the “illegal alien workers.”
During an undercover operation in January conducted by law enforcement, Castro Santos processed a $575 credit card transaction for the officer to take Jane Doe 11 off site to a hotel, according to the indictment, which says the woman was paid $1,000 in cash directly prior to leaving the club with the officer.
“Castro Santos then arranged for a taxi for the undercover officer and Jane Doe 11 to go to a hotel in St. Thomas. Upon arriving at the hotel room and while the undercover officer was in the bathroom, Jane Doe 11 removed some of her clothing, leaving only a bikini-style bottom. The undercover officer immediately asked Jane Doe 11 to stop undressing, which she did. Jane Doe 11 asked the undercover officer if he did not want to continue, and he said he did not.”
Jamil, Castro Santos and Hidalgo de Pena were subsequently arrested in the raid on Tootsys and Bolongo 25 on April 18.
A pretrial conference is set for June 24 at 9:30 a.m., with the jury trial currently scheduled for 9 a.m. July 13 before Chief Judge Robert A. Molloy in Courtroom 1.
This week, Hotel 1829 on St. Thomas will host a curated exhibition that bridges centuries, generations, and artistic traditions. “Resurrection: Old World, New Works”, presented by Aubrey Artworks, runs May 20-22 from 4.p.m. to 9 p.m. and features a cash bar, along with an eclectic mix of local and internationally acclaimed artists.
The exhibition brings together established older creators, some in their 80’s and 90’s, alongside emerging artists from St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, and abroad. The setting, Hotel 1829, is one of the oldest structures on St. Thomas and serves as a co-curator of sorts with its antique architecture providing a visual and historical counterpoint to contemporary works.
According to Aubrey Artworks, the theme emerged directly from the artist’s themselves. Working with creators in their later decades inspired the idea of resurrecting work from their earlier eras and presenting it alongside fresh voices just beginning to make their mark. The historic hotel setting reinforces this dialogue between old and new, with newer works adding different energy to walls that have witnessed nearly two centuries of history.
The exhibition features a diverse roster of talent, including: Andrew Barlas, David Berg, Ernie Bertrand, Greatness Was When, Jon Euwema, Jose Ramon Santiago, Mabel Maduro, Nikki Brown, Sara Lee Hayes, Sarah Swan, Shomo Art Studio, Theodora Moorehead, and Vicki Brown. Three internationally acclaimed artists are also featured: Dora Afolabi, Ellen Graubaugh, and IYANSA.
Aubrey Artworks describes the common thread running through all of his exhibitions as fundamentally people-centered. The focus is on community and on individuals with different perspectives at particular moments in their lives. Each artist brings a message to the viewer, and the goal is for that viewer, or participant, or seer, to be move by the work.
Future exhibitions from Aubrey Artworks will introduce more interactive elements. Plans include live artists working on-site, greater depth across different media, sound components, tactile experiences, and wearable art. “The goal is to continue showing work in luxury living spaces and boutique hotels on and around the territory, spaces where some community artists might not otherwise have easy access. My role is holding space for artists both literally and figuratively,” said owner A.C. Burgess.
REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS (RFQ)
THE RESIDENCES AT 340 NORTH – PHASE I
ST. THOMAS, U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS
A.C. Development, LLC is soliciting Statements of Qualifications (SOQs) from qualified firms for the following packages associated with
The Residences at 340 North – Phase I residential development project:
2026-RFQ-ACDEV-001: Package A – Horizontal Infrastructure
2026-RFQ-ACDEV-002: Package B – Vertical Construction
2026-RFQ-ACDEV-003: Package C – Material Supply
2026-RFQ-ACDEV-004: Package D – MEP Systems
2026-RFQ-ACDEV-005: Package E – Delivery Logistics
RFQ Issuance: May 15, 2026
Pre-Proposal Conference & Site Visit:
Friday May 29, 2026 at 10AM (AST) at UVI 13D Research and Strategy Innovation Center (8666 Lindbergh Bay, St. Thomas, VI 00802)
SOQ Submission Deadline: June 14, 2026
Respondents may submit for one or multiple packages.
The Project is anticipated to be funded, in whole or in part, through HUD CDBG-MIT funds administered by the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority.
To access each of the RFQ positings, please visit the VIHFA e-procurement website at https://vihfa.ionwave.net.
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