KOROR (Palau Horizon) – FOUR former officers of the defunct Pacific Savings Bank were charged on Monday with 339 counts of criminal complaint ranging from embezzlement, grand larceny, money laundering, grand larceny and conspiracy.
The defendants named in Criminal Case No. 10-038were Margo Llecholch, Deborah Rengiil, Sherry Tadao and Timothy Taunton.The four were charged in connection with the financial failure of the bank.
Llecholch,Rengiil andTadao were served with arrest warrants on Tuesday morning.Taunton however long fled the country in 2006.
Chief Justice Arthur Ngiraklsong during a court hearing yesterday set the bail for defendants Llecholch, Rengiil and Tadao at $5,000 and is ordered to surrender their passports.
The arraignment is scheduled on July 26.
Independent counsel Nelson Werner in a statement said that “these charges are preliminary charges. The investigation into the failure of the bank continues and we may file additional charges against these and other individuals in the future.”
According to the 74-page complaint, the defendants stole over $231,819 from the defunct bank.
The defendants were writing checks to fictitious companies with the purpose of converting it to personal use after.
The defendants were charged with money laundering because they purposely concealedor disguised the illegal nature of the crime.
PSB was the first locally owned bank in Palau and had more than 7,000 customers and more than US$20 million in deposits when it was declared insolvent and placed under receivership in Nov. 2006.
In 2006, former Tommy Remengesau hired an independent counsel to look into the bank’s failure.
The former independent counsel left the country and President Johnson Toribiong appointed Werner.
Previous criminal cases were filed in connection with the bank’s collapse only to be dismissed.
Werner then filed civil charges against individuals and corporations involved in the bank’s failure.
The civil charges contains19 different causes of action, including negligence, breach of duty, gross negligence, breach of fiduciary duties, breach of duty of loyalty, embezzlement, conversion, fraud, intentional misrepresentation, intentional concealment, conspiracy to commit fraud, violation of the Financial Institution Act and breach of promissory note.
The complaint said the banks officers and directors converted to their personal use and possession the sum of at least US$16 million.
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