Boni Sagana
ASSISTANT U.S. Attorney Albert Flores Jr. has asked the federal court to sentence Bonifacio “Boni” Sagana to 37 months in prison.
On July 19, 2023, a jury found Sagana guilty of conspiring with Bernadita Zata in producing a fraudulent CNMI driver’s license.
Sagana will be sentenced on Dec. 18 at 1:30 p.m. by Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI.
According to Flores, “The true extent of the fraudulent driver’s license scheme perpetuated at the CNMI Bureau of Motor Vehicle by Sagana is unknown.”
But it is “clear, at least, that defendant specifically helped foreign nationals without immigration status obtain a driver’s license on eight occasions. It should be noted, however, that these foreign nationals reached out to defendant for assistance because defendant already had the reputation of a trusted ‘street broker’ of fraudulent licenses for the Filipino community on the island of Saipan,” Flores said.
As former president of the “Dekada Movement” on Saipan, Sagana “was known as an advocate for Filipinos, a pathway to navigate and circumvent the immigration system, and the man who fixes problems,” the prosecutor said.
During the trial, a U.S. government witness, Eric Esteves, a former deputy marshal of the CNMI judiciary, testified that he encountered Sagana at the BMV and CNMI courthouse routinely.
Esteves said when he asked Sagana what defendant’s profession was, Sagana replied, “I run papers.”
“Indeed, this was the profession of defendant. But it is clear now, he did not do so with clean hands,” Flores said.
“The driver’s license scheme facilitated by defendant fostered an environment of systemic corruption at the CNMI BMV, and endangered public safety by arming unqualified drivers to operate vehicles on roadways. Defendant should be held accountable accordingly. The Government recommends Sagana be sentenced to thirty-seven months,” Flores added.
Citing “bad publicity,” Sagana, through his attorney Richard Miller, has asked the federal court for a new trial.
Miller said Sagana’s “Sixth Amendment right to trial by an impartial jury was violated by pervasive and false pretrial publicity, in this small community of the Northern Mariana Islands, that Mr. Sagana had fled Saipan before he could be arrested.”
As of Monday, the federal court had not issued a ruling yet on Sagana’s request for a new trial.
