CHIEF Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI on Friday ordered Bonifacio “Boni” Vitug Sagana to “willfully appear in the United States District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands for arraignment” on Aug. 3, 2022, at 9 a.m.
Failure to appear will result in the issuance of a bench warrant for his arrest, the judge said.
Sagana will arrive on Saipan no sooner than July 26 or July 28, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
On June 29, Sagana appeared at a hearing via video teleconference from the Office of the Federal Public Defender in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Judge Manglona previously authorized the United States Marshals to provide the defendant with funds so he can travel from Green Bay to Saipan, including subsistence expenses.
On Jan. 31, 2022, the federal court issued an arrest warrant for Sagana after a grand jury indicted him on the charge of conspiracy to unlawfully produce an identification document.
Before he could be arrested, however, he had already left the island. According to other defendants, it was Sagana who arranged for them to fraudulently obtain a CNMI driver’s license using a counterfeited U.S. immigration visa number.
Sagana was arrested on May 16, 2022, in the State of Wisconsin.
A former long-time guest worker in the CNMI, Sagana was also one of the advocates who sought improved immigration status for nonresident workers in the early and late 2000s.
