2019 US Virgin Islands Code
Title 14 - Crimes
Chapter 30 - Criminally Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act
§ 607. Civil remedies
(a) The Attorney General, or any aggrieved person, may institute civil proceedings against any person in the Superior Court or United States District Court in order to obtain relief from conduct constituting a violation or in order to prevent or restrain a violation of any provision or provisions of section 605 [Violations] of this chapter. If the plaintiff in such a proceeding proves the alleged violation by a preponderance of the evidence, the trial court may, after making due provision for the rights of innocent persons, grant relief by entering any appropriate order or judgment, including, but not limited to:
(1) ordering any defendant to divest himself of any interest in any enterprise, or in any real property;
(2) imposing reasonable restrictions upon the future activities or investments of any defendant, including prohibiting any defendant from engaging in the same type of endeavor as the enterprise in which he was engaged in violation of section 605 [Violations];
(3) ordering the dissolution or reorganization of any enterprise;
(4) ordering the suspension or revocation of any license, permit, or prior approval granted to any enterprise by any agency of the Territory; or
(5) ordering the surrender of the certificate or charter of a corporation organized under the laws of the Territory of the Virgin Islands or the revocation of a certificate authorizing a foreign corporation to conduct business within the Territory of the Virgin Islands upon finding that the board of directors or a managerial agent acting on behalf of the corporation, in conducting the affairs of the corporation, has authorized or engaged in conduct made unlawful by section 605 [Violations] and that, for the prevention of future criminal conduct, the public interest requires that the charter of the corporation be surrendered and that the corporation be dissolved or the certificate revoked.
(6) None of the above provisions shall be held to limit the existing equitable powers of the trial court.
(b) Relief under subsections (a)(4) and (a)(5) of this section, shall not be granted in civil proceedings instituted by an aggrieved person unless the Attorney General has intervened under subsection (e) of this section. In a proceeding under this section, injunctive relief shall be granted in conformity with the principles that govern the granting of relief from injury or threatened injury in other cases, but no showing of special or irreparable injury shall have to be made. Pending final determination of a proceeding initiated under this section, a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction shall be issued upon a showing of immediate danger of significant injury, including the possibility that any judgment for money damages might be difficult to execute, and, in a proceeding initiated by an aggrieved person, upon the execution of proper bond against injury for an injunction improvidently granted. Under no circumstances shall the Government of the Virgin Islands be required under this chapter to execute a bond. If the trial court issues an injunction, or grants other relief under this section, or the plaintiff otherwise substantially prevails, the plaintiff shall also recover reasonable attorney's fees in the trial and appellate courts and the costs of investigation and litigation reasonably incurred.
(c) Any person, directly or indirectly, injured by conduct constituting a violation by any person of the provisions of section 605 [Violations] shall, in addition to any other relief under this section, have a cause of action subject to the in pari delicto defense for three-fold the actual damages he has sustained. Damages shall not include pain and suffering. Damages under this section shall not be limited to competitive injury or distinct injury. In an action under this section, where the plaintiff substantially prevails, the plaintiff shall also recover reasonable attorney's fees in the trial and appellate courts and costs of investigation and litigation reasonably incurred. Any person so injured shall have a right or claim to any property criminally forfeited to the Government of the Territory of the Virgin Islands or against which any fine under section 606 [Criminal penalties], subsection (b) of this chapter, or against which any civil penalty under this section may be imposed, superior to any right or claim of the Government of the Territory of the Virgin Islands to the property, up to the value of treble damages, fees, and costs awarded in an action under this subsection. The Government of the Territory of the Virgin Islands shall have a right of subrogation to the extent that an award made to a person so injured is satisfied out of property criminally forfeited to the Government of the Territory of the Virgin Islands or against which any fine under section 606 [Criminal penalties] or civil penalty under this section may be imposed.
(d) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any pleading, motion or other paper filed by an aggrieved party in connection with a proceeding or action under subsections (a) and (b) of this section shall be verified. Where the aggrieved person is represented by an attorney, such pleading, motion, or other paper shall be signed by at least one attorney of record in his individual name, whose address shall be stated. Where such pleading, motion, or other paper includes an averment of fraud, coercion, or accomplice or conspiratorial accountability, it shall state, insofar as is practicable, the circumstances with particularity. The verification by an aggrieved party and the signature by an attorney required by this subsection shall constitute a certification by said aggrieved party and by said attorney that they have carefully read the pleading, motion, or other paper and, based on a reasonable inquiry, believe that:
(1) it is well grounded in fact;
(2) it is warranted by existing law, or a good faith argument for the extension, modification or reversal of existing law; and
(3) it is not made for any improper purpose, including to harass, to cause unnecessary delay, to force a needless increase in the cost of litigation, or to force an unjust settlement through the serious nature of the averment.
(e) The Attorney General may institute proceedings against any enterprise, other than an individual, to recover a civil penalty to be imposed in the discretion of the trial court, for conduct constituting a violation of any provision of section 605 [Violations]. The civil penalty shall not exceed one million dollars ($1,000,000.00) less the value of any property criminally forfeited or any fine imposed under section 606 [Criminal penalties]. Penalties collected under this subsection shall be applied to the costs and expenses of investigation and prosecution, and the balance, if any, to the Criminal Activity Investigation and Prosecution Fund established under section 609 of this chapter.
(f) Upon the filing of a civil proceeding or action under this section, the United States Attorney or any other aggrieved person shall immediately notify the Attorney General of its filing. The Attorney General may, upon timely application, intervene in any civil proceeding or action brought under this section if the Attorney General certifies that, in the opinion of the Attorney General, the proceeding or action is of general public importance. In any proceeding or action brought by an aggrieved person, the Government of the Virgin Islands, by the Attorney General, shall be entitled to the same relief as if the Attorney General had instituted the proceeding or action.
(g) A final judgment or decree rendered against the defendant in any civil or criminal proceeding or action under this section or section 606 [Criminal penalties] shall estop the defendant in any subsequent civil proceeding or action brought by any person as to all matters as to which the judgment or decree would be an estoppel as between the parties to the civil or criminal proceeding or action.
(h) Notwithstanding any other provisions of law providing a shorter period of limitations, a civil proceeding or action under this section may be commenced within five years after the conduct made unlawful under section 605 [Violations], or when the cause of action otherwise accrues or within any longer statutory period that may be applicable. If a criminal proceeding or civil action or other proceeding is brought by the Attorney General or the United States Attorney to punish, prevent or restrain any activity made unlawful under section 605 [Violations], the running of the period of limitations prescribed by this section with respect to any other cause of action of an aggrieved person under subsections (a), (b), or (c) of this section, based in whole or in part upon any matter complained of in any such prosecution, action or proceeding, shall be suspended during the pendency of such prosecution, action or proceeding and for two years following its termination.
(i) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, any person who has perfected a security interest in personal or real property or a beneficial interest in such property for the payment of an enforceable debt or other similar obligation prior to the filing of a criminal activity lien notice or a lis pendens in reference to such property or interest may foreclose such interest as otherwise provided by law. The foreclosure of such interest shall, insofar as it is practicable, be made in such a fashion that it will not otherwise interfere with a forfeiture under this chapter.
(j) Personal service of any process in a proceeding or action under this section may be made upon any person outside the Territory of the Virgin Islands if the person was a principal in any conduct constituting a violation of this chapter in this Territory. The person shall be deemed, by having engaged in such conduct within this Territory, to have thereby submitted himself to the jurisdiction of the courts of this Territory for the purposes of this section.
(k) The application of any civil remedy under this section shall not preclude the application of any other civil or criminal remedy under this chapter or any other provision of law. Civil remedies under this section shall be supplemental and not mutually exclusive.
