The Guam Bar Ethics Committee recommended Aguilar’s suspension after he was implicated in a money laundering scam.
Aguilar consented to the suspension. His counsel Peter Perez and Bruce A. Bradley, prosecuting counsel for GBA office of the ethics prosecutor, also signed the stipulation order, with the approval of Chief Justice Robert Torres, and Associate Justices F. Philip Carbullido and Katherine A. Maraman.
Aguilar pleaded guilty to two counts of money laundering and was sentenced to five years probation by the federal court.
He faced a possibility of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.
Aguilar owes restitution in the range of $150,000 to $200,000 to the Bank of Guam, and a Superior Court judge will determine the amounts and timing of his restitution payments.
Aguilar was a victim of a fraud scheme out of Hong Kong that targeted attorneys, according to a previous press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
He responded to an email solicitation for a lawyer and had entered into a lawyer-client relationship with the soliciting party.
The client mailed Aguilar a check which he deposited into his business account at a Guam bank, with the understanding that the check would be used to pay his legal fees or commission, and the remaining amount would be forwarded to a company in Korea.
Aguilar then transferred most of the funds to a second bank and made withdrawals from that account.
He later learned that the email solicitation was part of an international internet fraud scheme, and the check was forged.
After learning from the first bank that the check was fraudulent, Aguilar continued to withdraw funds from the second bank and used it to pay off his personal and business debts.
