Mon Ethos Founder Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud and Bribery in VIPD Corruption Scheme

Bribery charges involve over $66,000 paid to a VIPD official for restaurant development, luxury trips to Boston with personal butler service, and tickets to local sporting events, in exchange for contract favors and priority invoice payments

Founder — and until recently owner — of Mon Ethos Pro Consulting has pleaded guilty in the Virgin Islands District Court to charges of wire fraud and bribery of a government official identified by prosecutors as an “agent” of the Virgin Islands Police Department. The information filed in May of this year alleges that around February 2021, Mr. Whitaker “did knowingly devise a scheme to defraud or to obtain money or property by materially false or fraudulent representations or promises with the intent to defraud.” His guilty plea admits that communications made on February 3 2021 from a computer in the Virgin Islands and transmitted through servers in Oregon were made to advance, further, or carry out the scheme he had concocted.‌

Starting around November 2022, prosecutors say Mr. Whitaker began to give cash payments to Public Official One, the aforementioned “agent” of the VIPD, in order to corruptly influence the individual in question. At the time, the VIPD was in receipt of a not-insignificant amount of federal funding. Around November 23, Mr. Whitaker transferred over $60,000 from New York to Puerto Rico in furtherance of his scheme.