Shayne Villanueva is sworn in by a House special committee during a meeting in the House chamber on March 5, 2024.
SHAYNE Villanueva self-surrendered at the Department of Correction after an arrest warrant was issued against him for contempt on Friday morning. Villanueva posted $1,000 bail for his release. As he came out of Corrections, he was met by his attorney, Keith Chambers.
As of 1 p.m. Friday, there was no additional information in Superior Court regarding the contempt case against Villanueva.
Villanueva is the owner of Roil Soil Marketing, which the administration of then-Gov. Ralph DLG Torres contracted to help implement the $17 million, federally funded Building Optimism, Opportunities and Stability Together or BOOST program in 2022.
According to the House Special Committee Federal Assistance & Disaster-Related Funding, the documents it gathered indicated that Villanueva was paid by the previous administration $215,000 “at the very least,” for implementing the program.
On March 5, 2024, Villanueva appeared before the committee and invoked his Fifth Amendment right when asked questions about BOOST.
The committee found him in contempt, and Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez transmitted to Attorney General Edward Manibusan a “certification of statement of contempt” pertaining to Villanueva.
The speaker cited 1 CMC Section 1306(a), which states that “a person shall be in contempt if the person…having appeared fails or refuses to testify under oath or affirmation.”
“Villanueva is clearly in contempt as he has refused to answer any questions posed by the committee regardless of the question’s incriminatory nature. Consequently, the committee, by majority vote of its members, determined that his actions established contempt and moved to report this fact to the House of Representatives on March 5, 2024, by a unanimous vote,” the speaker said.
He told the AG that pursuant to 1 CMC Section 1306(b), “I hereby certify this statement to your Office of the Attorney General for the purpose of prosecuting Mr. Villanueva in the Commonwealth Trial Court.”
Two other former BOOST contractors, Rob Travilla and Salina Sapp, appeared before the House committee and invoked the Fifth Amendment in refusing to answer questions about BOOST.
On March 15, 2024, Villagomez transmitted to the AG a certification of contempt pertaining to Travilla and Sapp.
