THE Attorney General’s Office is questioning the attempts by a law firm to interfere with the Superior Court’s management of Bank of Saipan’s receivership.
Assistant Attorney General Allan L. Dollison, on behalf of acting Commerce Secretary Fermin M. Atalig, said prior to the receivership action, Calvo & Clark law firm was identified as corporate counsel to Bank of Saipan.
Dollison, however, said Superior Court Presiding Judge Edward Manibusan has already authorized the receiver to “succeed to all rights, titles, claims, powers and privileges of the bank, and of any account holder, depositor, officer, or director of the bank with respect to the bank….”
“The receiver has not retained the services of Calvo & Clark, therefore they can only be before the court as attorneys for certain current and or former shareholders (of the bank),” Dollison said in his opposition to the motion to replace Randall T. Fennell as the bank’s temporary receiver.
Dollison said the receiver has retained new independent counsel who played no role in advising the bank and “certain current and or former shareholders with the events that led to the receivership action.”
Calvo & Clark lawyers claim that Fennell needs to be replaced because “nearly all of the bank’s employees intend to resign if Fennell continues as the bank’s temporary receiver.”
On Friday, Calvo & Clark filed a 179-page motion explaining why the court should immediately terminate the temporary appointment of Fennell as receiver.
But Dollison said Thomas D. Schoen, the current chief operating officer of Bank of Saipan, expected that 17 of the 45 bank employees would work toward the re-opening of the bank, if approved by the court.
“Therefore the court merely needs to draw the conclusion that almost 40 percent of the employees intend to return to work. A workforce of 40 percent is a sizable amount,” Dollison said.
He said since the bank has been in receivership and was closed to the public on April 30, a limited number of employees had been coming to work.
“It was only after a representative of the group of employees met with the law firm of Calvo & Clark, (which is) counsel to certain current and or former shareholders of the bank, that a number of the employees refused to come to work on May 16 and…17,” he said.
According to Schoen, some employees told him that some of them were meeting with a representative from Calvo & Clark, and that they were planning not to return to work on May 20.
Last Friday, Schoen said Fennell and attorney Cindy Adams met with the bank employees to discuss various employment issues.
Schoen said some employees told him that they were “embarrassed” by their previous action in signing a petition.
“They all admitted to be worried and concerned about their future. They also indicated that other employees who did not show for the Friday meeting were either embarrassed or feared some sort of reprisal for attending the outside meetings,” Schoen said.
Attorney Rodney J. Jacob of Calvo & Clark has asked the court to vacate the May 10 order on the bank’s receivership.
