Without laying charges, police have concluded their breach-of-trust investigation into a public officer who had been suspected of leaking government information to the media, Police Information Officer Diane Drayton said Monday.
In recent months, e-mails and other documents have been leaked to various media outlets, providing details about public projects, finances and other inner workings of government.
Most recently, Virgin Islands News Online obtained and published on April 6 an e-mail the media outlet claimed Governor John Duncan sent to Financial Secretary Neil Smith, outlining how the governor’s recent $1.88 million appropriation would be disbursed.
Asked on Monday if the investigation was directly related to that specific leaked e-mail, Ms. Drayton declined to answer.
“Police will not be releasing any information on the matter,” she stated.
Mr. Smith did not respond this week to a request for comment, but in April he said he doubted the suspect was responsible for the leaks.
“Information has been leaking from my office before this person came to work for Finance, and no one besides myself and the minister seemed to care about it then,” he stated, though he didn’t identify the public officer in question. “I greatly doubt that this employee is the cause for the leak, and I would be greatly appreciative of an investigation that seeks to find the truth behind the leaks as opposed to following the path of least resistance.”
Mr. Duncan declined to comment on the investigation’s conclusion this week.
According to the Virgin Islands Criminal Code a “public official who in the discharge of his or her duties commits a fraud or breach of trust affecting the public” can be penalised with a maximum sentence of three years imprisonment for a summary offence and seven years for an indictable offence.
However, the law does not describe what constitutes a beach of trust.
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