The Wall Street Journal, the nation’s leading business newspaper, profiled St. Croix’s very own tycoon, Jeffrey Prosser, Tuesday in a front-page article and on its website, WSJ.com. Both carried a lengthy investigative report detailing Prosser’s rise from humble beginnings as a Nebraska accountant — his 1986 salary was reportedly about $24,000 — to the world of a private Boeing 727 jet and a Rolls Royce.
Reporters Michael Allen and Mitchell Pacelle spent months gathering information on Prosser’s dealings. Their assignment would have been completed sooner, but it was sidetracked while they pursued the story of a fugitive European financier.
All told, Allen made three trips to the Virgin Islands between last June and this January to get a taste of the islands and interview dozens of people. Pacelle, who worked on stateside leads, visited St. Croix once.
Their main interviewee, Prosser, who in the article describes himself as "paranoid," was reluctant to talk. With the story ready to roll, however, he finally agreed to an interview late last month after receiving a final faxed request from the paper.
The story carries quotes from a number of island residents, including an expletive-deleted tirade from St. Croix entrepreneur and former Public Works Commissioner Ann Abramson. It details how Prosser, 43, owner of Innovative Communications Corp., built his empire on long-distance "phone sex" billings and almost $500 million in loans from the non-profit Rural Telephone Finance Cooperative.
The story wraps up with the pending federal bribery trial of one of Prosser’s ICC vice presidents, John Tutein. Prosser denied any knowledge of Tutein’s alleged efforts to bribe Sen. Allie-Allison Petrus to help ICC. He told the reporters that the Virgin Islands is a "soap opera society" and said ICC didn’t have "anything to do with bribing anyone."
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