By Gina Tabonares
Variety News Staff

THE U.S. District Court of Guam has ordered convicted former Senator William “Willy” Bruce Flores to surrender, after denying the former lawmaker’s request to post bail pending the resolution of his latest motion.
Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood, in an April 13, 2007 order, directed Flores to turn himself over to the designated U.S. Marshals Office and start serving his eight-month incarceration in an off-island federal detention facility.
Flores was sentenced on Oct. 27, 2005 after pleading guilty to money laundering charges filed against him and former chief of staff Gil Shinohara. He was supposed to report to the U.S. Marshals on March 13 but was allowed a 30-day stay of execution of his sentence after his mother died last month.
While waiting for the result of a motion for reconsideration which 3they filed in the 9th Circuit Court, Flores’s lawyer, David J. Highsmith, filed a motion to vacate, set aside or correct sentence in the District Court. Highsmith also filed a motion to release and stay of execution on April 12.
In his petition, the former senator alleged that the sentencing judge was improperly biased against him, resulting in an illegal sentence.
Judge Tydingco-Gatewood ordered the U.S. Attorney’s Office to file any opposition to Flores’s petition on or before April 27, 2007 and schedule a May 2, 2007 deadline for Flores to reply to the government’s opposition.
The court stated if it finds that a hearing is necessary on Flores’s motion, it will set a court hearing at a later date.
On Flores’s petition to be released pending his petition, Judge Tydingco-Gatewood ruled that motions for release pending sentence and appeal do not apply to a convicted federal prisoner seeking post-conviction relief.
“Accordingly, the Bail Reform Act is not the proper standard to determine Flores’s eligibility for bail,” the judge stated.
Flores, as part of his plea agreement, cooperated with federal authorities and testified against Shinohara and Takahisa Goto who were sentenced in federal court for concocting a scheme to defraud the Bank of Guam of some $300,000.
The bank originally loaned the conspirators $2 million to purchase Pedro’s Plaza and committed to lend them an additional $1 million to renovate and repair the typhoon-damaged, abandoned multi-story office building in Hagatna.
Instead of making the renovations, they diverted $300,000 for their personal use.
Shinohara was sentenced to a 32-month incarceration with a $10,000 fine, and had to pay $150,000 in restitution, while Goto was ordered to be locked up in his house for three months with electronic monitoring and two years of probation.
Shinohara is still in a local jail waiting for the disposition of the government corruption case filed against him in connection with the retirement benefits of former Gov. Carl T.C. Gutierrez.
Gutierrez and former Retirement Fund director John Rios were earlier indicted but their indictments were dismissed.