Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Biden Joins Superyachts in Caribbean

U.S. President Joe Biden and his family have joined billionaires vacationing in the Caribbean for New Year parties.  Biden landed in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.  Over 200 superyachts are scattered around the Caribbean to ring in the New Year.   How many Caribbean superyacht owners are the private equity underwriter (PEU) kind?

It's rare for a U.S. president to visit the U.S. Virgin Islands while in office.  It's not rare for billionaires to have undue influence on our government.  Will Biden meet with any PEUs during his time in St. Croix?   Little St. James would be a fitting location for at least one PEU, Leon Black of Apollo Global.

Update 12-29-22:  The U.S. Virgin Islands is suing Wall Street bank J.P. Morgan:

“Human trafficking was the principal business of the accounts Jeffrey Epstein maintained at JPMorgan.”

Last month Epstein’s estate agreed to pay the USVI more than $105m as part of a settlement in a case involving his sex trafficking and child exploitation on the islands’ territory.

As part of the agreement, the estate agreed to pay the USVI half the proceeds from the sale of Little St James, the private island he bought in 1998 and allegedly used for many of his sexual crimes.

The settlement, which does not include any admission of wrongdoing, includes the return of more than $80m in economic development tax benefits that Epstein and others had “fraudulently obtained to fuel his criminal enterprise”.

Will they sue Bill Clinton or Tony Blair for providing political cover for Epstein?