By Gina Tabonares
Variety News Staff

FIVE former sales employees of MidPac who allegedly conspired for a year to embezzle from the island’s biggest distributor of cigarette and liquor have been charged by the Attorney General’s Office in the Superior Court of Guam.
They include Arlan Quiral Marquez, 29, of Yigo; Perry Joe Gogue, 26, of Yigo; Rick Francisco Sablan, 26, of Yigo; Leanbon Frias Sarmiento, 26, of Mangilao; and James Borja Untalan, 33, of Dededo.
They were charged with theft as a second-degree felony, theft of property held in trust as a second-degree felony and conspiracy to commit theft as a second-degree felony.
The magistrate’s complaint filed by Deputy Attorney General Lewis Littlepage stated that MidPac reported a loss of more than $224,000 from the theft scheme of the five former sales employees.
The unauthorized transactions of the fired employees were discovered after the company comptroller noticed a shortage of 44 cases of cigarettes for the month of January 2007.
John T. Calvo reported to the Guam Police Department that a review of the sales department indicated that five sales employees were performing numerous unauthorized transactions with handheld devices they used on deliveries.
Each handheld device is assigned to a particular driver or salesman who can get access through a user identification number.
According to Calvo, knowledge of the warehouse password for each device, which is different from the driver/salesman password, was limited to five individuals which included Untalan.
Management’s further investigation determined that Marquez, Gogue, Sablan and Sarmiento would receive cash from vendors then void the invoice and keep the cash.
Calvo said the improper transactions had been traced since January 2006. An internal audit determined that from January 2006 to the present, the company losses have reached $224,030.
Sales manager Ricardo Rodriguez reported that upon cross-checking the invoices with customers with those submitted by Marquez, Gogue, Sablan and Sarmiento, they were able to determine that tobacco products were actually sold but the four employees had reported that the tobacco products were returned to the warehouse.
A further management investigation also found changes in the lifestyles of the four: Gogue had a new phone and race truck; Marquez is constructing a new house; Sablan just purchased a new jeep; and Sarmiento had just bought land with a house being constructed on it.
MidPac warehouse manager Bill Chargualaf informed Guam police that he had interviewed the four and was informed by Gogue that Untalan, a warehouse employee, was the one who gave them the code for the handheld devices that allowed them to input unauthorized transactions.
When interviewed by police, Sarmiento admitted taking $2,000 to $3,000 in merchandise but denied voiding invoices. He also denied working with anyone else to steal money or voiding transactions in his handheld device.
An internal audit found that Sarmiento had a discrepancy of $25,861 in missing funds.
Sablan also denied that he stole money from MidPac or knew the password. While he admitted that he was the only person who had access to the handheld device when he was on deliveries, a review of the internal audit showed that he had $55,338 in missing funds.
Gogue said he received the code for the handheld device from Untalan in return for favors. He said Untalan asked him to deliver several cases of cigarettes so that Untalan could sell them on his own.
Gogue further stated that Untalan told him he would be responsible for offloading Gogue’s vehicle and that he would be able to cover it up. He added that Untalan showed him how the inventory gets covered up when using the warehouse code. Gogue had a discrepancy of $83,320.60 in missing funds.
Marquez admitted to Guam police that he did “off load” his inventory on deliveries from the handheld computer and learned how to show it back in the warehouse. He said he learned the password by observing someone else entering it into the computer.
He also admitted taking money belonging to the company from company clients like Prime Market, White Market, Jong Ho Market, Hills Market, Latte Heights Market and Dededo Retail Mart.
Marquez said he used the money to go clubbing. He had a discrepancy of $59,510 in missing funds.
As for Untalan, he told police investigators that he never revealed the password for the handheld device.