--- alias: - Carlton "Ital" Dowe - Senator Carlton Dowe category: Political Figure created: 2026-09-25 location: St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands relations: - end: 1999-01 fn: 3 role: director start: 1995-01 type: head_of with: '[[Virgin Islands Fire Service]]' - end: 2013 fn: 1 role: senator type: member_of with: '[[Legislature of the Virgin Islands]]' - end: 2016-12 fn: 2 role: executive director start: 2013-01-16 type: head_of with: '[[Virgin Islands Port Authority]]' - end: 2026-04-10 fn: 2 role: executive director start: 2019-07-08 type: head_of with: '[[Virgin Islands Port Authority]]' - fn: 3 reverse: true role: two-count wire fraud indictment; acquitted at trial start: 2004-08-12 type: prosecuted with: '[[United States Attorney for the District of the Virgin Islands]]' - end: 2025-03-21 fn: 1 role: defendant start: 2023-11-22 type: subject_of with: '[[Doe 1 v. Government of the United States Virgin Islands]]' - fn: 7 reverse: true role: bank fraud, false statements on loan applications, aggravated identity theft start: 2026-03-12 type: prosecuted with: '[[United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico]]' summary: Virgin Islands senator and two-term Port Authority executive director whose 2019 return Cecile de Jongh asked Epstein to support, acquitted of wire fraud in 2004 and indicted for bank fraud in 2026. tags: - Person - CarltonDowe - VirginIslands - VirginIslandsPortAuthority - JeffreyEpstein - GovernmentCapture - BankFraud updated: 2026-09-25 --- Carlton Dowe is a [U.S. Virgin Islands](/places/us-virgin-islands/) politician who directed the Virgin Islands Fire Service from 1995 to 1999, sat as a senator in the [Legislature of the Virgin Islands](/organizations/legislature-of-the-virgin-islands/), and was twice executive director of the [Virgin Islands Port Authority](/organizations/virgin-islands-port-authority/), from January 2013 to December 2016 and from July 2019 to April 2026. He was acquitted in 2004 of a federal wire fraud charge brought while he was a sitting senator. In December 2018 [Cecile de Jongh](/people/cecile-de-jongh/), the office manager of [Jeffrey Epstein's](/people/jeffrey-epstein/) territorial companies, asked Epstein whether he would support Dowe's return to the Port Authority, and Dowe met and spoke with Epstein while he held the post. He announced his retirement on March 20, 2026, the day a federal bank fraud indictment against him was unsealed.[^1][^2][^3][^4] ### Fire Service and the 2004 Indictment On August 12, 2004 a federal grand jury sitting on [St. Thomas](/places/st-thomas/) returned a two-count wire fraud indictment against "Senator Carlton Dowe," announced jointly by David M. Nissman, the United States Attorney for the District of the Virgin Islands, and Assistant Attorney General Christopher Wray of the [Justice Department](/organizations/department-of-justice/) Criminal Division. The indictment charged Dowe with stealing 75,207.75 dollars in government funds. It alleged that from January 2000 through February 2002 he "concocted and engaged in a fraudulent scheme to resubmit a $50,000 court judgment for back pay to the Virgin Islands Fire Service," where he had been director from January 1995 through January 1999, "after receiving payment in full through the Legal Judgments Special Fund administered by the [Virgin Islands Attorney General](/organizations/virgin-islands-department-of-justice/)." According to the indictment he "instructed a Fire Service employee to alter his payroll records to reflect a retroactive increase in his hourly wage," combined the payment with an unrelated claim, and received "a lump sum duplicate payment from the territorial government in the pre-tax amount of $75,207.75," and when the Office of the Virgin Islands Inspector General began investigating, he "coaxed the Fire Service employee who calculated and processed the fraudulent claim at his direction to lie to investigators." The case was handled by the Public Integrity Section. Dowe went to trial and was acquitted.[^3][^5] A 2016 profile in the *Virgin Islands Daily News* described Dowe as a former firefighter, fire chief and Fire Service director and a former deputy U.S. marshal, who served five terms as a senator and chaired the Finance Committee. He holds associate degrees in fire science and fire administration from Miami Dade Community College and a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from John Jay College of Criminal Justice.[^5] ### The Senate and the 2012 Sex-Offender Law The federal court that heard the 2023 trafficking suit recorded, citing the parties' filings, that Dowe was a senator "from 2001 to 2004 and from 2007 to 2013"; the public broadcaster WTJX reported in 2026 that he served from 2009 to 2013. He was in the Legislature when it passed Bill 29-0239, enacted as Act No. 7372, which expanded the monitoring of sex offenders and required 21 days' advance notice of travel. The second amended complaint in Doe 1 v. Government of the United States Virgin Islands quotes a July 1, 2012 email from Cecile de Jongh to Epstein: "Will need to work through Dowe and White" to change the legislation, and "In the meantime, we will work with Vincent to give the discretion for status quo for you - thats the least he can do." Attorney General [Vincent Frazer](/people/vincent-frazer/) reduced Epstein's notice period to 24 hours on August 14, 2012. The complaint alleged that "Epstein was thus allowed to circumvent the recently passed legislation with assistance of Senator Carlton Dowe, Senator Celestino White, and Attorney General Vincent Frazer."[^1][^4][^6][^7] ### The Port Authority The Port Authority's board selected Dowe as executive director on January 16, 2013, and he served until December 2016, when he was dismissed during the governorship of [Kenneth Mapp](/people/kenneth-mapp/); David W. Mapp Sr. held the post from 2017 to 2019. On April 8, 2014 a special assistant to the executive director wrote to Cecile de Jongh, who forwarded the message to Epstein: "Executive Director Dowe has requested that I schedule Mr. Epstein's appointment. Director Dowe is available to meet with Mr. Epstein on Thursday, April 10, 2014 at 12:30 p.m., at the Virgin Islands Port Authority in the office of the executive director." On April 21, 2015 Epstein's assistant [Lesley Groff](/people/lesley-groff/) wrote to him under the subject line "Carlton Dowe": "Carlton Dowe returned your call."[^2][^5][^8][^9] On December 24, 2018, after [Albert Bryan](/people/albert-bryan/) had won the governorship, Cecile de Jongh wrote to Epstein, according to the Doe complaint: "John wanted to know whether you would support Carlton Dowe's bid to go back to the VIPA [VI Port Authority]. . . He would be a good person for us at VIPA." Her husband, [John de Jongh](/people/john-de-jongh/), had been governor from 2007 to 2015. Dowe returned as executive director on July 8, 2019. The complaint's chart of defendants listed Dowe, jointly with Delegate [Stacey Plaskett](/people/stacey-plaskett/), as having participated through "Waiver sex offender registry" and "Changed sex trafficking law in accord with Epstein's lawyer's recommendations," with the benefit "Epstein supported bid for USVI Port Authority job."[^2][^4] Epstein's aviation company, Thomas World Air, held a hangar facility lease with the Port Authority at Cyril E. King Airport, and in August 2017 it asked the authority's police chief for badge escort privileges on the ramp for an assistant to his chief pilot, [Larry Visoski](/people/larry-visoski/). A 2022 complaint to the [Federal Bureau of Investigation](/organizations/federal-bureau-of-investigation/), released in January 2026, alleged that Dowe was "paid off" by Epstein in connection with a hangar at the airport. *The Virgin Islands Consortium* reported that the hangar described was owned by a private aviation company built under a public-private partnership with the Port Authority, not by Epstein, and that "Epstein previously sought approval to construct a hangar at the airport, but that proposal was rejected by Dowe and VIPA."[^10][^11] ### The Estate Case In an October 2, 2023 interview with the FBI, released in January 2026, the former Attorney General [Denise George](/people/denise-george/) said Governor Bryan sent Dowe, then director of the Port Authority, to press her to settle the territory's suit against Epstein's estate. According to the FBI notes, Dowe told her he knew she "would only do things if they are right," but that he "does things for Bryan too but has a line he won't cross." George told him Bryan "would have to fire her to get what he wants," and Dowe replied that "it would be political suicide to fire her at least before the election," after which he stopped talking to her. Bryan removed George on December 31, 2022, days after she sued [JPMorgan Chase](/organizations/jpmorgan-chase/).[^12] ### The Trafficking Suit Six women identified as Jane Does named Dowe, as a former senator, among the defendants in their November 22, 2023 suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against the [Government of the United States Virgin Islands](/organizations/government-of-the-united-states-virgin-islands/), the de Jonghs, Mapp, Frazer, [Celestino White](/people/celestino-white/) and Plaskett, alleging violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. On March 21, 2025 Judge Arun Subramanian dismissed the claims against Dowe for lack of personal jurisdiction, noting that "plaintiffs' counsel stated at the September 30 conference that the 'sole basis' for jurisdiction over Carlton Dowe 'is conspiracy jurisdiction' and the SAC does not allege that he received any payments from Epstein." Final judgment was entered on May 5, 2026, and the plaintiffs appealed to the Second Circuit under No. 26-1316.[^1][^13] ### The 2026 Indictment A federal grand jury returned an indictment against Dowe in the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico on March 12, 2026; it was unsealed on March 20, when he appeared in District Court on St. Thomas. He was charged with four counts of bank fraud, four counts of making a false statement on a loan application and one count of aggravated identity theft, for conduct alleged between March 18, 2021 and November 10, 2023. The indictment alleged that he submitted loan applications with false income statements to Banco Popular de Puerto Rico to refinance his mortgages, including a claimed monthly payment of 4,500 dollars under a fake lease bearing the forged signature of a purported tenant, and a claimed 15,500 dollars a month under an invalid lease with a second person. The same day Dowe gave the Port Authority board chairman, Willard John, notice of his retirement effective April 10; John said he had not known of it. The attorney Joseph DiRuzzo III of [Fort Lauderdale](/places/fort-lauderdale/) appeared as his counsel. No public statement by Dowe on the charges was found.[^7] [^1]: Doe 1 v. Government of the United States Virgin Islands, No. 1:23-cv-10301-AS (S.D.N.Y.), Opinion and Order, ECF No. 202 (March 21, 2025), pp. 1 to 2, 10. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.610915/gov.uscourts.nysd.610915.202.0.pdf [^2]: Virgin Islands Port Authority, "Our History," including the list of executive directors, accessed September 25, 2026. https://www.viport.com/our-history [^3]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, "Virgin Islands Senator Indicted on Fraud and Theft Charges," press release 04-560, August 13, 2004. https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2004/August/04_crm_560.htm [^4]: Doe 1 v. Government of the United States Virgin Islands, No. 1:23-cv-10301-AS (S.D.N.Y.), Second Amended Complaint, ECF No. 112 (May 24, 2024), paragraphs 4 to 6 and charts (Exhibits F and G), pp. 2 to 8, and paragraph 161. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.610915/gov.uscourts.nysd.610915.112.0.pdf [^5]: Austin, Jonathan. "Dowe's history." *Virgin Islands Daily News,* December 22, 2016. https://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/dowes-history/article_119980ee-db41-51d0-9042-dc3ce986ec3f.html [^6]: Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., No. 1:22-cv-10904-JSR (S.D.N.Y.), Exhibit 83, ECF No. 194-24 (filed June 20, 2023), pp. 36 to 47 (Hodge and Frazer correspondence of July and August 2012 on Act No. 7372). https://web.archive.org/web/20260117011719/https://www.justice.gov/multimedia/Court%20Records/Government%20of%20the%20United%20States%20Virgin%20Islands%20v.%20JPMorgan%20Chase%20Bank,%20N.A.,%20No.%20122-cv-10904%20(S.D.N.Y.%202022)/194-24.pdf [^7]: Eader, Tom. "VIPA ED Carlton Dowe indicted on bank fraud, tells board of retirement same day as court appearance." *WTJX,* March 20, 2026, on the indictment in United States v. Dowe, No. 3:26-cr-00084 (D.P.R.), the release conditions, the retirement letter and Dowe's Senate service; United States v. Dowe, No. 3:26-cr-00084 (D.P.R.), docket. https://newsfeed.wtjx.org/2026-03-20/vipa-ed-carlton-dowe-indicted-on-bank-fraud-tells-board-of-retirement-same-day-as-court-appearance ; https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72610038/united-states-v-dowe/ [^8]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01929537, DataSet 10, email chain from the special assistant to the executive director of the Virgin Islands Port Authority to Cecile de Jongh, forwarded to Jeffrey Epstein, April 8, 2014. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01929537.pdf [^9]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00858918, DataSet 9, email from Lesley Groff to Jeffrey Epstein, "Carlton Dowe," April 21, 2015. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00858918.pdf [^10]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00799380, DataSet 9, letter from Thomas World Air, LLC to Chief Edred J. Wilkes Jr., Virgin Islands Port Authority Police Division, Cyril E. King Airport, August 18, 2017. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00799380.pdf [^11]: Gilbert, Ernice. "Former Gov. Kenneth Mapp Visited Epstein's Island, Sought $50,000 for Final Election Push, DOJ Records Show." *The Virgin Islands Consortium,* January 31, 2026. https://viconsortium.com/vi-federal/virgin-islands-former-gov--kenneth-mapp-visited-epstein-s-island--sought--50-000-for--final-push---doj-records-show [^12]: Carlson, Suzanne. "Docs confirm Bryan pressed for special treatment of sex offender." *Virgin Islands Daily News,* February 2, 2026 (FBI notes of an October 2, 2023 interview with Denise George). https://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/docs-confirm-bryan-pressed-for-special-treatment-of-sex-offender/article_5e9483c9-38d2-406c-8bb0-e5757ce287f2.html [^13]: Doe 1 v. Government of the United States Virgin Islands, No. 1:23-cv-10301-AS (S.D.N.Y.), docket, including Judgment, ECF No. 229 (May 5, 2026); Doe 1 v. Government of the United States Virgin Islands, No. 26-1316 (2d Cir.), docket. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/68031620/doe-1-v-government-of-the-united-states-virgin-islands/ ; https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73544397/doe-1-v-government-of-the-united-states-virgin-islands/