The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. paid $105,000 for 3,000 gallons of Rydlyme, or $35 per gallon.
William John Powell of Rydlyme Industrial Products yesterday said sometime in 1996, he received a call from James A. Santos who showed interest in purchasing Rydlyme.
A co-defendant in this case, Santos is Villagomez’s brother-in-law and would later serve as Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s commerce secretary.
The witness said he had five transactions with Santos from 1997 to 1998.
The published price of Rydlyme is between $6.97 and $7.50 per gallon, plus shipping charges and other costs of about $2 to $3 per gallon, Powell said.
The first transaction involved the delivery of 496 gallons of Rydlyme from January to June 1998, and Powell said he received a check for $4,603.48 signed by Santos.
The second transaction involved the delivery of $19,702 worth of Rydlyme in June 1998.
The third transaction was in Oct. 1998 for the delivery of $28,831.80 worth of Rydlyme.
This was followed by two more transactions, worth $17,471.60 and $13,729.
Powell said his company’s markup was about 20-30 percent.
He said he first visited Saipan sometime late in 1997 or early 1998, to check whether the market for Rydlyme in the CNMI was worth pursuing.
He said he met Santos and they visited CUC where Powell demonstrated the uses of Rydlyme.
He said sometime in June or July 1998, they conducted an actual cleaning of CUC Engine #5 using Rydlyme to check its effectiveness.
Rydlyme is designed to dissolve the toughest mineral scale from water-based systems or equipment.
The prosecution earlier presented copies of invoices and checks indicating that CUC paid Islas Micronesia $105,000 for 3,000 gallons of Rydlyme.
The transactions entailed a markup of approximately 400 percent over cost.
Santos owned Islas Micronesia.
His wife’s company, Blue Pacific, also sold Rydlyme to CUC.
His wife, Joaquina V. Santos is the brother of Villagomez, a former CUC executive director.
