Under the terms of the settlement, Pfaff and related co-defendants, including GET Realty Trust, have forfeited to UMDA their claim on a share of the proceeds of the sale of the Laolao golf property — a share worth approximately $2,842,000.
UMDA’s chairman of the board and acting president Joe Lifoifoi said: “This is a great day for the shareholders of UMDA. Thanks to prompt action on the part of UMDA management and legal counsel, we were able to prevent Mr. Pfaff and his associates from absconding with $6 million of UMDA’s money in April of 2007, and today we can say that over the course of this litigation we have returned more than half of it to where it rightly belongs. We will now turn our attention to recovering the remainder of the money from Mr. Pfaff’s cronies, both of whom are also convicted criminals.”
UMDA had obtained a preliminary injunction from the court in Nov. 2007 to prevent Pfaff and his co-defendants from removing some $6 million in proceeds from the sale of the Laolao golf property that rightly belonged to UMDA.
The money coming to UMDA in the recent settlement is part of this $6 million fund that has been under the court’s stewardship for the last two years.
UMDA will continue to press its claims against the other defendants in the civil suit, including convicted criminals John Larson and David Amir Makov and their offshore companies, with trial likely to be scheduled for sometime next year.
Pfaff pled guilty to criminal charges in federal court in New York last month in a case called U.S. v. Pfaff that focused on his activities as a director of UMDA during a period that ended in 2002.
Earlier this year, Pfaff was sentenced to 97 months in federal prison and fined $3 million for his role in defrauding the United States through the creation of fraudulent tax shelters in U.S. v Stein.
Marriage Encounter weekend reunion
THE local chapter of the Worldwide Marriage Encounter graduated 19 new couples from the fall
weekend, which took place from Oct. 16 to 18.
The presenting team consisted of Jess & Anicia Sonoda, Father Ryan Jimenez, Don & Jeanette Boltz and Vince & Hilma Castro with Bishop Tomas A. Camacho greeting the new couples at the start and end of the encounter.
The Marriage Encounter Community was scheduled to hold a weekend reunion last Friday, starting with a 6 p.m. Mass and followed by the gathering at the Saipan Grand Hotel.
For more information, call Mark & Jenni Aguon at 287-9742.
Call-A-Ride program has 2 new vans
THE Office of the Council on Developmental Disabilities says two new accessible vans have been assigned to the Call-A-Ride Program.
The vans were purchased under a federal grant through the Federal Transportation Administration.
CDD Executive Director Pam Sablan expresses her sincere gratitude to the Public School System, most especially to Commissioner of Education Rita Sablan and her staff: Tim Thornburgh, George Palican, Pete Leau, Robert Florian, Rita Dela Cruz and the Board of Education for their efforts in providing the council with the two vans.
