In May 2005, James Biden and his wife, Sara, purchased a one-acre plot of land in the middle of the island, according to property records. Tax records describe the view from the property as “excellent.” The price: $150,000.

Then, the couple got an easement to access the land and divided it into three parcels. The easement, granted by the Virgin Islands territorial government, gave them the right to use an existing driveway to the property that cut across government land. A year later, in May 2006, the Bidens sold the northernmost parcel, just over a third of an acre, to Green and his wife, Julie, according to property records.

The price, again, was $150,000. In effect, James and Sara Biden had gotten their money back while keeping most of the land — recouping their investment in just 12 months.

Land value can fluctuate, making it difficult to assess whether such a dramatic increase in land price was reasonable. An easement can make land more valuable, depending on how costly the easement was and how difficult it was to obtain.

The paperwork costs for this type of easement would be minimal, according to Raf Muilenburg, managing partner at Morrisette & Muilenburg, a law firm based in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Muilenburg estimated that the cost of planning and surveying a driveway easement would be under $1,000. Filing fees would be in the hundreds of dollars, and that the easement could also entail a small amount of legal work, he said.

Typically, the recipient of an easement also pays the party granting the easement for the rights they are getting on that party’s land. If James and Sara Biden paid the Virgin Islands territorial government for the driveway rights, it was not reflected in property records.

A tax bill from 2006 lists the assessed value of Green’s parcel at $87,000, but tax records indicate the bill was rescinded. Subsequent tax bills list the assessed value of Green’s plot at just $38,000 — a quarter of the $150,000 purchase price — until 2013, when it jumped to $83,700. Typically, land sells for more than its assessed value.

A person answering the phone at John Foster Real Estate, a local realtor, identified Chuck Gidley as the agent listed on the original 2005 transaction.

Gidley declined to comment.

Scott Green’s career has been tied to Joe Biden’s, from his days as a member of Biden’s Senate staff to his work as a lobbyist on projects of special interest to Biden.

As a young man, Green played linebacker for the University of Delaware football team, overlapping at the school with James Biden for a few semesters, and graduated in 1973. He is best known for his work as an NFL referee, having led the officiating crew at Super Bowl XLIV in 2010. He is currently listed as the executive director of the NFL Referees Association, which acts as a bargaining representative in labor negotiations.

Referee Scott Green makes a call in the second half of the Seattle Seahawks and Baltimore Ravens NFL football game on Nov. 13, 2011, in Seattle. | Elaine Thompson/AP Photo

At the same time, Green has led a parallel career in Washington. After working as a probation officer after college, Green accepted an offer from Biden in the early 1980s for a job on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he worked for a decade in roles that included staff assistant and senior advisor.

From the Senate, Green pivoted to the private sector.

In 1994, he co-founded Lafayette Group, a lobbying and consulting firm focused on law enforcement and national security that is now headed by his son.

The firm’s website features a photo of Green with Biden. It also quotes Biden praising his former staffer’s commitment to law enforcement, saying, “Scott Green was emotionally invested. It wasn’t just a job for him; it was an emotional investment.”

Government contracts for niche support services for law enforcement and national security agencies have been central to the firm’s business over the years, according to a firm history posted on its website.

In the Senate, Biden over the years proposed appropriations for many of the niche areas in which the firm specialized, including “interoperable communications” for first responders and “fusion centers” for processing threat-related intelligence.

Lafayette Group’s government contracting business extended into the Obama years, as did Green’s ties to Joe Biden. Government data shows tens of million of dollars in contract awards to the firm from federal agencies over the course of the Obama administration.

If Joe Biden knew of his brother’s dealings, he should have stopped allowing Green to lobby him or his staff, according to Richard Painter, a former chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, who recently became a Democrat.

“It's really time to send a message to the lobbyist that ‘If you’re doing deals with my brother, I really can’t see you,’" Painter said. It is not clear whether such measures were ever taken in response to the property deals.

In both January and September of 2010, Green met with a Biden aide in the Old Executive Office Building, according to White House visitor logs, which do not record the purpose of those meetings. In May of that year, he attended a reception in honor of firefighters and law enforcement officials at the vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory, according to the logs.

Among Lafayette Group’s biggest single days for government business during the Obama years was April 11, 2010, when records show it received two awards from the Federal Emergency Management Agency worth a total of $5.8 million as a subcontractor to Booz Allen Hamilton. Lafayette Group was charged with providing “Support for [the Office of Emergency Communications] contract developing communications strategies,” according to a description of the award. There is no indication that Biden played a role in the awarding of the contract.

On April 14 of that year, Green and his wife gave James and Sara Biden a $133,300 mortgage on their remaining Water Island real estate, according to property records.