The V.I. Justice Department complaint against Mon Ethos Pro Support — the cybersecurity company accused of holding critical VIPD data and equipment “hostage” over a $500,000 payment — is minus a judge after Carol Thomas-Jacobs recused herself from the case on Thursday. The move comes as the DOJ asked the court to impose a Friday deadline to retrieve the disputed property.
Whether the government’s proposed Friday deadline will be enforced is unclear now that the case is absent a presiding judge.
Thomas-Jacobs filed her notice of recusal on Thursday morning, returning the case to the Clerk of Court for reassignment after Mon Ethos owner David Whitaker sought her disqualification because she was involved in a murder investigation that he worked on and discussed with her in 2022 when she was attorney general.
The judge said her recusal was “to prevent any further delay in the return of evidence entrusted to Mon Ethos in the investigation of criminal cases … and to avoid litigation of collateral issues which will only detract from the central issues in this matter.”
The DOJ filed a complaint against Mon Ethos and Whitaker on July 2 in V.I. Superior Court, along with a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary and permanent injunction, alleging the company breached its contract for cybersecurity services with the VIPD and was threatening to delete data critical to ongoing investigations and court cases.
The government alleges Mon Ethos demanded payment of $479,795 on June 15 for work done over the previous three months “and threatened that data would be ‘lost’ if payment was not immediately remitted.” It was around the same time that the FBI announced that Police Commissioner Ray Martinez and Office of Management and Budget Director Jenifer O’Neal were the targets of a federal investigation regarding the government’s contract with Mon Ethos. Within days, both officials had resigned.
According to the verified complaint, equipment in Mon Ethos’ custody includes a GrayKey — an item that lets police hack into mobile devices and retrieve encrypted information — iPads, Facebook portals, iPhones, Max West Nitro tablets, Qlink Wireless tablets, laptops, Motorola cellphones, and Android Moto G phones with cases.
Mon Ethos has denied wrongdoing and on Thursday afternoon issued a press statement calling Thomas-Jacobs’ recusal “imperative” and saying the fundamental matter at hand is the V.I. government’s “coordinated endeavor … to elude its fiscal responsibilities” by not paying close to half a million dollars the company claims it is owed.
Mon Ethos also alleges that it has an amended contract that the government has not disclosed.
“The legal actions taken against MEPSVI are not only baseless but also serve as a blatant attempt to pressure our company into continuing work without compensation. This is an unsustainable and unethical demand that undermines the very principles of fairness and justice that the government purports to uphold. Additionally, the government has misrepresented key facts regarding the current status of our contract, the nature of our relationship with them, and has withheld the disclosure of MEPSVI’s execution of a contract amendment,” according to the statement by Whitaker.
The Source called and emailed Whitaker for comment on that and other issues and he said he would respond by the end of the day on Friday.
The prolific businessman (some have said career conman) is known for his role as an FBI operative in a sting that netted a $500 million fine for Google and a reduced prison sentence for Whitaker, who was facing 65 years in a multimillion-dollar e-commerce scheme in 2011. Instead, he got five years and was ordered to pay $10 million. Lawsuits have followed him in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he has been in legal disputes with landlords, employees, investors, landscaping services and now the DOJ.
How he ended up with a VIPD contract for cybersecurity is unclear, though Government House has said previously that a criminal record does not necessarily preclude a person from having a business license or government contract in the USVI.
Public spending records reveal that the V.I. government has paid $3.31 million to Mon Ethos since August 2022, including $1.7 million from the Office of Management and Budget and $1.5 million from the V.I. Police Department. The company also signed a contract with the V.I. Education Department for $1.9 million on Feb. 28 for security systems and surveillance at 11 campuses in the St. Croix district, paid for with federal COVID-19 funds.
According to the Property and Procurement Department, the one-year VIPD contract was awarded in October under an exemption to the formal bidding process, specifically 31 V.I. Code section 239(a)(8). Reasons for circumventing bids can include emergencies, expenditures under $10,000, under $50,000, single and sole source providers, technical expertise, and standardization of equipment, it said in response to questions from the Source.
“It starts with a request from a user agency, where the user agency identifies its needs, justifies its need in line with the requirements of the exemption being used, and provides copies of the quotes received (if the exemption requires multiple quotes),” the agency said. “The information is reviewed and vetted by DPP and either approved or disapproved. If approved, the nature of the services determines the resultant contract type,” it said, referring to its procurement manual.
Prior to her recusal on Thursday, Thomas-Jacobs granted the Justice Department’s motion for a temporary restraining order on Aug. 8 over Whitaker’s objection, and ordered both sides to come up with a plan to exchange the disputed property, which the DOJ did on Thursday.
In its Notice of Compliance with the court’s order, the agency was blunt in its assessment of its prior attempts to retrieve the property, noting “an evident pattern of obstructionism” by Mon Ethos, which it said has met demands for the equipment’s return with threats to delete data.
Even after a court order demanding the return of one device — the black iPhone of a defendant in a criminal case that has concluded — Mon Ethos “created reasons for the delay in complying and, further, in turning over all devices in its care, instead putting up unreasonable obstacles,” the DOJ said.
“Mon Ethos responded in a shifty manner,” the agency said, saying that there were two phones that met the description and case number, delaying the phone’s return to its owner.
On Thursday, the Justice Department again itemized the equipment and the data it wants from Mon Ethos and said a VIPD forensics team would be available to retrieve the property at an agreed upon time on Friday.
Additionally, “the GVI does not object to the Court ordering that this process occur in the presence of a court marshal, for the sole purpose of maintaining the peace,” it said.
