Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez speaks during a House session.
SPEAKER Edmund S. Villagomez on Friday transmitted to Attorney General Edward Manibusan a “certification of statement of contempt” pertaining to Shayne B. 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 indicate that Villanueva was paid by the previous administration $215,000 “at the very least,” for implementing the program.
On Tuesday last week, Villanueva appeared before the committee and invoked his Fifth Amendment right when asked questions about BOOST.
The committee then found him in contempt.
In his “certification of statement of contempt,” the House speaker said Villanueva failed to answer questions posed by the special committee.
Although Villanueva asserted his Fifth Amendment privilege, 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 he has reviewed the special committee’s report, and 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.”
Variety learned that similar certifications will be transmitted by the speaker to the AG regarding two other former BOOST contractors, Rob Travilla and Salina Sapp, who also invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked questions about BOOST.
The committee is also alleging that Travilla and Sapp perjured themselves regarding the existence of BOOST-related WhatsApp messages between them and former Office of the Governor Chief of Staff Wil Castro.
In December 2022, Castro appeared before the House Committees on Judiciary and Governmental Operations to answer questions regarding BOOST.
Other former administration officials and Bank of Saipan officials likewise appeared before the JGO committee to answer questions about BOOST.
In January 2023, the House JGO chaired by Rep. Marissa Flores said it would no longer conduct additional legislative hearings regarding BOOST due to “the initiation of several criminal investigations into the…program….”
The JGO said it “agreed on respecting the process and avoiding conflict with these ongoing criminal investigations.”
