CHARLOTTE AMALIE — An indictment was unsealed Friday charging Ray Martinez, the former police commissioner of the Virgin Islands Police Department, and Jenifer O’Neal, the former director of the Virgin Islands Office of Management and Budget, with participating in a bribery and money laundering conspiracy, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Virgin Islands said.
Martinez, of St. Croix, and O’Neal, of the British Virgin Islands, pleaded not guilty in their initial court appearances Friday at the Ron de Lugo Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas.
According to court documents, Martinez, 56, and O’Neal, 53, accepted bribes from a then-government contractor, David Whitaker.
Former Virgin Islands Police Commissioner Ray Martinez of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
The indictment alleges that the scheme began in at least November 2022 and continued until June 2024, with O’Neal joining the scheme no later than January 2024.
The defendants also allegedly conspired to launder proceeds from the bribery scheme through a monetary transaction to pay rent at O’Neal’s coffee shop.
In exchange for the bribes paid by Whitaker, Martinez and O’Neal, among other official acts, allegedly agreed to pprove fraudulently inflated invoices and assist with obtaining payment for those invoices by the
Virgin Islands to Whitaker.
Martinez also agreed to assist Whitaker in obtaining a $1.48 million contract to provide services to the VIPD in October 2023.
Former Office of Management and Budget Director Jenifer O’Neal of Road Town, Tortola, BVI
Additionally, according to court documents, after the investigation was originally made public, Martinez allegedly obstructed the investigation by encouraging Whitaker to destroy evidence associated with Martinez’s criminal activity and produced falsified documents in response to a subpoena.
Martinez and O’Neal are each charged with five counts of honest services wire fraud, which each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison; one count of federal program bribery, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison; and one count of money laundering conspiracy, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Martinez is also charged with two counts of obstruction of justice, which each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brent S. Wible, head of the Justice
Department’s Criminal Division; United States Attorney Delia Smith for the District of the Virgin
Islands; and Special Agent in Charge Joseph Gonzalez of the FBI San Juan Field Office made the
announcement.
The FBI San Juan Field Office, St. Thomas Resident Agency is investigating the case and
Trial Attorneys Alexandre Dempsey and Steve Loew of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity
Section and Assistant United States Attorneys Michael Conley and Kyle Payne for the District of the
Virgin Islands are prosecuting the case.
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven
guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law
