BONIFACIO “Boni” Sagana was arrested on May 16, 2022, in Wisconsin on the charge of conspiring with others to unlawfully produce a CNMI driver’s license.
On Jan. 31, 2022, the District Court for the NMI issued an arrest warrant for Sagana following a grand jury indictment.
Sagana was identified by other defendants as the person who arranged for them to fraudulently obtain a CNMI driver’s license using a counterfeit U.S. immigration visa number, Variety learned.
Sagana, however, had already left the island before he could be arrested.
He remains out of custody and is scheduled to appear before Magistrate Judge Heather Kennedy on June 15 at 9 a.m.
Sagana, through his court-appointed attorney David Banes, requested that the defendant be allowed to appear telephonically. Banes said his client is currently in Wisconsin.
Judge Kennedy granted Sagana’s request.
According to documents obtained by Variety in the Eastern District Court of Wisconsin (Green Bay), Sagana, a U.S. permanent resident, appeared at an initial hearing on May 16, 2022, before Judge James R. Sickel.
The judge released Sagana under his own recognizance. He was also ordered to appear before the District Court for the NMI when directed to do so.
The charge against Sagana is punishable by up to a maximum sentence of 15 years imprisonment and $250,000 fine.
A former long-time guest worker in the CNMI, Sagana was one of the advocates who sought improved immigration status for nonresident workers in the early and late 2000s.
