BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – ACCORDING to the Virgin Islands Daily News, a federal jury handed out consecutive verdicts of not guilty in the tax fraud trial of Frank Mills, Chairman of CFB College Board and the director of the Eastern Caribbean Center at the University of the Virgin Islands, and his wife Lauritz Mills
Frank Mills and Lauritz and were charged with two counts of filing false income tax return forms for 2004 and 2005. Both had pleaded not guilty.
In addition, the wife of Dr. Mills, Lauritz Mills, who also heads the Bureau of Economic Research in the Virgin Islands, pleaded not guilty Wednesday (June 9) to a fraud and embezzlement charge stemming from a September 2009 audit report questioning the agency's management of some federal funds. Mrs. Mills has declared that the audit report from which the charges stemmed was "unfair and incorrect."
Both had requested a jury trial after being arrested and charged over a year ago.
After listening to two days of testimony last week, the jury brought in verdicts of not guilty after about two hours deliberation.
Even though the indictment had caused her to relinquish her job at the Bureau which she had held for 14 years, Lauritz Mills emerged with a very forgiving and philosophical spirit.
She told reporters ““I just want to forgive who have knowingly done wrong to us and move forward from here.” She was now ready to move on with her life, she said.
Lawyer for Frank Mills stated that he never doubted his client’s innocence and that he was glad to see that the truth vindicated him.
Frank Mills had continued to work in his capacity at the Eastern Caribbean Center and as Chairman of the CFB Board. The jury’s acquittal means any conditions of restraint that had been placed against them will be vacated.
