THE federal court has handed an eight-month jail term to businessman Candido I. Castro in connection with a mail fraud case.
U.S. District Court for the NMI, Judge Alex R. Munson during Tuesday’s sentencing also ordered Castro to immediately pay $100,000 in restitution, a $30,000 fine, and $100 in assessment fee.
Munson directed Castro to pay the $100,000 to the federal court’s clerk of court.
The clerk of court, the judge said, shall distribute the restitution to the Commonwealth Development Authority in the amount of $33,333.33 and to the U.S. Department of Interior in Washington, D.C. for $66,666.67.
Munson said that after completing the jail term, the defendant shall be placed on three years of supervised release.
At the hearing, Castro, through counsel David G. Banes, asserted that the amount he owed was $100,000.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Rice, on behalf of the U.S. government, did not object to the recommended amount.
Rice and Banes moved for a downward departure from the sentencing guidelines and requested a sentence of eight months imprisonment because of the defendant’s substantial cooperation to investigators.
The court granted the motion.
Munson released Castro on the previously set conditions until he is notified by the U.S. Marshal.
The judge denied Castro’s motion that he be detained within the CNMI jail facility.
But Munson granted Castro’s request to be given 30 days to get his affairs in order prior to being taken into custody.
The U.S. government filed in Nov. 1999 an information charging Castro with mail fraud. The offense carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment and a fee of not more than $250,000.
The defendant waived the indictment and entered a guilty plea.
Court documents showed that on June 30, 1997, Castro submitted a $229,438 fee proposal to the CNMI government in relation to a road survey project on Tinian.
The defendant knew that he had obtained the project illegally and that his fee proposal was grossly inflated, according to the documents.
Castro was also aware that such proposal misrepresented the true nature of the work that he intended to perform, court papers said.
On July 7, 1997, Castro caused the government to place in an authorized mail depository for delivery by the U.S. Postal Service to the U.S. Department of Interior, Office of Insular Affairs, a letter enclosing a copy of his fee proposal.
