AFTER he was identified by multiple business establishments on Saipan as the person who used a credit card to make unauthorized purchases, Steven Roman Tudela was arrested and charged with theft and misuse of a financial instrument.
According to court documents, Tudela, 28 and unemployed, made unauthorized transactions in the total amount of $6,990.85 using a missing credit card.
At a bail hearing on Tuesday morning, Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho imposed a $20,000 cash bail on Tudela who was represented by Assistant Public Defender Tyler Scott. Assistant Attorney General Steven Kessel appeared for the government.
After the hearing, Tudela was remanded to the custody of the Department of Corrections and was ordered to return to court for a preliminary hearing on Jan. 4 at 10 a.m., and for an arraignment on Jan. 9 at 10 a.m.
According to an affidavit filed by police, on Oct. 9, 2022, a man told his wife that his wallet was missing after a visit to his mother’s residence. The couple looked everywhere but they could not find the wallet and thought it was misplaced.
They then went on a family vacation to Japan and returned to Saipan on Oct. 15. The wife said they resumed looking for her husband’s wallet which contained three bank cards, two credit cards, and cash amounting to $1,000. But they still did not find the wallet.
Later, the wife said, when she checked online, she found multiple transactions on one of the credit cards on Saipan while they were still in Japan.
She told police that they had hired a private investigator who obtained footage from a surveillance camera of a store where one of the credit cards was used. The footage showed a man who was known to the wife and her husband — Steven Tudela.
The husband told police that Tudela, who is his brother’s stepson, was not authorized to use the victim’s credit card to purchase anything. He said it was not the first time Tudela stole from him.
Police said they are also investigating other unauthorized transactions made by Tudela at other business establishments between November and December 2022.
