Frozen WAPA Bank Account Connected To Court Judgement Over Unpaid Bills

A series of financial mishaps and unpaid vendor bills have led to court-ordered freezes on WAPA's bank accounts, threatening the utility's ability to purchase necessary fuel and manage operations

On Tuesday during an update from Government House on the recent instability in the territory’s electricity grid, Office of Management and Budget Director, Jenifer O'Neal, revealed that the Water and Power Authority’s bank accounts in the territory had been frozen, rendering them temporarily unable to access funds that Ms. O’Neal said were needed for fuel purchases. One of those accounts had since been released, but at the time Ms. O'Neal did not specify the reason for the freeze in the first place.

Consortium journalists subsequently learned that WAPA’s legacy of unpaid bills was to blame, with the bank account freezes coming as a result of a court order in the face of an unsatisfied judgment dating back several years. ‌In 2020, Power Rental OpCo. LLC filed suit in Florida, claiming that WAPA had defaulted on a promissory note executed the previous year, in the amount of just over $9.3 million.‌