The role is currently held by Huub den Rooijen who will be retiring after ten years at The Crown Estate. Jaspert, according to Crown Estates, will be stepping in to facilitate the transition and provide continuity to existing partners and customers.

The role is currently held by Huub den Rooijen who will be retiring after ten years at The Crown Estate with Jaspert stepping in to facilitate the transition and provide continuity to existing partners and customers.

Marine holdings valued £5B

The Crown Estate’s Marine holdings, valued at £5 billion, includes management of the seabed and around half of the foreshore around England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

While the Government of the Virgin Islands (VI) had complained to the United Kingdom (UK) Government of the alleged disregard for the Virgin Islands Constitution, disrespect to the legislature and disregard for the right of the territory to seek more autonomy and ultimately independence by then-governor Augustus J. U. Jaspert, the latest appointment shows that ‘Gus’ continues to be rewarded despite his controversy and failures in the VI.

According to the Birthday Honours 2021 Overseas and International List published by the UK government on June 11, 2021, Mr Jaspert was given the Order of St Michael and St George.

The controversial ex-governor, who it is alleged called a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) in the Virgin Islands during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic because he was vexed he was unable to get his way with the democratically elected Virgin Islands Party (VIP) government, was also conferred with the title of Companion (CMG).

Is Jaspert a racist?

While in the territory, Mr Jaspert had also angered Virgin Islanders who felt he had uttered racist and insensitive statements when he said the Virgin Islands' descendants of slaves should not look forward to reparations for chattel slavery.

Mr Jaspert also called for the names of landmarks named in honour of persons who were involved in the slave trade and who would have also committed crimes against humanity to be preserved, even as statues of persons involved in the slave trade were being torn down around the world, including in the United Kingdom.

Further, Mr Jaspert never apologised for his statements but instead departed the Virgin Islands mere days after announcing a controversial Commission of Inquiry on Martin Luther King Day, Monday, January 18, 2021.

Coincidentally, the symbol of the badge for the Order of St Michael and St George depicts a white angel stepping on the neck of Satan, portrayed as a black person.

It was in June 2020, that the image on the badge had come in for strong criticism from persons who believed it was racist and reminiscent of the May 25, 2020, killing of George P. Floyd Jr by white police officers in the US.

Jaspert recalled 9 months earlier

One political pundit, speaking to Virgins Islands News Online (VINO), added that irrespective of the CoI, the failures of ‘Gus’ in the VI resulted in him being recalled 9 months early to pave the way for the appointment of the new Governor John J. Rankin CMG.

Before taking up his new job at Crown Estates, Mr Jaspert landed a civil service job in the United Kingdom (UK) through his embattled pal, Prime Minister and pro-colonialist Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson aka ‘Boris’.