‘What about white-collar crime?’ Julian Willock
Mr Willock was questioned by the host on a variety of topics, from crime to local politics, as well as US President Donald J. Trump (R) and the decision by the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.
While speaking on the crime rate in the Virgin Islands (VI), Mr Willock warned that “we must not only criticise but come to the table with solutions.”
He said one of the many solutions to help combat crime is that the government must properly fund the police force. Mr Willock, who runs a local political and marketing firm, Advance Marketing and Professional Services, said one solution is to take at least $1M from the BVI Tourist Board Budget to fund the police as it is vital to link a low crime jurisdiction with our tourism product, “there are synergies between both.”
Another area that must be considered for crime reduction is continued training and using modern technology to fight crime, such as CCTV cameras, he noted.
White-collar crime needs attention-Willock
However, Mr Willock mentioned on the radio show the rate at which white-collar crime has been going unpunished in the Territory, adding that this category of crime appears to also be on the rise locally.
White-collar crime is a non-violent offence usually committed for financial reasons by politicians and other persons in the public sector or by captains of industries.
According to the former Permanent Secretary, “white collar crime……from my observation and from hearing and seeing documents, seems to be on the rise,” Willock said, adding that such category of crime is not always easy to detect.
The fact that no audited financial report has been tabled in the territory’s House of Assembly for some almost eight consecutive years, the businessman further articulated, is among the vexing observations as far as possible white-collar crime is concerned.
Mr Willock noted that this was a blatant violation of the Financial Management Act, “but who is holding the government accountable?” he asked the radio show host.
The young man, who has emerged as a voice of reason, called for true fair play in the justice system, by asking for law enforcers to treat all categories of crime equally.
According to him, offences committed by regular citizens are more aggressively targeted and they most often go to jail. But he stated that with white-collar crime it seems there is almost discrimination, that the guy on the corner block or the girl with the dime bag are quickly sent away, but white-collar criminals seem to be totally ignored in our society,” Willock said during an appearance on the EMG Radio Show hosted by Edmund G. Maduro.
The Virgin Islander told the public “if a politician raids the Treasury and does illegal stuff, he should be held accountable just like the young man who would sit on the corner and sell a dime bag of weed and get into trouble.”
Mr Willock, who holds Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Political Science and Economics, was also asked if he would be a candidate in the next elections and his views on the appointment of a new Leader of the Opposition.
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28 Responses to “‘What about white-collar crime?’ Julian Willock”
For example, in the US, the truly needy moms getting public assistance may be looked upon with jaundice eyes; while, corporate welfare barely gets a blink of the eye. Further, too often drug king pins roam free while mules are caught and locked up.
All criminals should get fair and equal treatment. Prosecution should not be a function of one's pocket book. White collar criminals should get due process (their day in court) as the small and non-connected lil man. The lil man is treated as just a number in the judiciary system while the big shots get away with murder. Selected prosecutions must stop. Prosecutors must go after white collar criminals with same aggressiveness and energy as they go petty criminals.
On another note, a best management/business practice (BMP) is for agencies to conduct yearly financial audits for accountability purposes, to assess the financial health of agencies......etc. As such, it is unfathomable why the BVI government has not laid a financial audit on the table at the HOA since 2006 or there about. From my vantage point, there are only two reasons why this would happen.
First, either the government is incompetent or secondly, the government may not like what an independent audit may show. Is the cost of not doing the audits lower than doing them? This was Donald Trump's strategy in not releasing his income tax returns.
All crimes are suppose to be treated as crime, from a simple lie to murder, each one leaves a scar on somebody, some times its so shameful that victims don't even want to speak about it, and each one hurt the victims the same! All we needed was a job, to better our lives and take care of our family, that it.
it. financial services won't even provide proof of any action or investigation against such - to the victim. someone
electronically got into peoples local accounts this past december here and took money out - then claimed that
their credit card machine did it by mistake over transactions two years before. no one is talking, though the money
was returned. is this white collar crime?