On September 16th and 17th, the National Puerto Rican Coalition (no affiliation) sent a letters to the USDOJ and the SEC requesting an investigation into a deal between the foreign-owned Diageo and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
A quote from the letter sent to Representative Velasquez’s office on September 17th states:
This deal is unprecedented in that it effectively transfers U.S. tax dollars directly to a foreign company, with Diageo slated to receive almost half of all Cover Over revenues generated by the sale of rum produced at the facility. The almost $6 billion in direct payments over 60 years for only 40 jobs is equivalent to $2.5 million per job per year.
We applaud and support the National Puerto Rican Coalition in its continued effort to educate legislators on the untenable deal and persuade government authorities to look into practices which encourage corruption and misappropriation of U.S. Taxpayers’ money.
The letter to Congresswoman Velasquez can be found here.
