(Deemed “elite,” it seems, as: (i) they receive six-figure-pension benefits annually, in many cases greater than their salaries while CNMI employed; and/or, (ii) they include numerous high-ranking government officials, judges, and others, many now double-dipping as others salivate at the prospect of pending CNMI legislation reportedly being pushed to permit more double-dipping).
Rather, the lawsuit was initiated by a group of retirees at the lower end of the annual pension/compensation scale — people, incidentally, who are personally hard-pressed to meet even minimal court and administrative costs, and therefore would receive assistance from others in this regard. Contact them c/o [email protected].
And if anyone made payment of legal fees to myself or my co-counsel anytime during the past few months, well, that’s news to us. Because we haven’t received a penny, or any other such payment, but will continue moving ahead with the case.
On a related note, some have questioned whether my clients have monetary-damage-dollar-signs on their minds. If such nattering-nabobs-of-negativity would muster the ambition to simply read the pleadings — rather than grouse while ill-informed — they’d know that my clients’ interests are in protecting, rehabilitating, and preserving Fund assets for the retiree/beneficiaries — while, of course, assessing who might be liable fiscally and otherwise for the Fund’s slide toward insolvency and calamity…with nominal damages being sought for my clients (“nominal” meaning “in name only”)…like $1 per client.
Of course, in the process, significant monetary reimbursement, disgorgement, and recovery payments (via cash, assets, and the like) will be sought to stabilize and make whole the Fund — these a consquence of wrongdoing, in violation of federal laws (and CNMI laws) by assorted governmental entities, officials, and others, some of whom now draw, or imminently shall attempt to draw, mega-pension-benefits, as “elite” retirees themselves, from the Fund.
Prison time? Well, obviously we’ve seen of late that violation of federal laws within the CNMI, can lead to Club Fed for the perpetrators.
But then, that is up to the feds.
BRUCE L. JORGENSEN
Washington, D.C.
