FORMER Guam Gov. Paul M. Calvo and his two brothers want to intervene in the Bank of Saipan receivership proceedings and deposit in the Superior Court the $1.3 million paid to them by B. Douglas Montgomery for the purchase of their stocks in the bank.
The Calvos said that without their intervention, no one will adequately represent their interests as major shareholders and depositors of the bank.
The Calvos, through attorney Robert J. O’Connor, said there is a need to deposit the $1,336,758 in the court, adding that several individuals are claiming to be the owners of the funds.
O’Connor, in court papers, said the Calvos should be allowed to intervene as defendants in the receivership action filed by Commerce Secretary and Banking Commissioner Fermin M. Atalig against the bank.
“Intervention requires only that the intervenor claim an interest ‘relating to’ the property which is the subject of the action, and that the disposition of the matter ‘may as a practical matter’ impair his ability to protect it,” the lawyer said.
O’Connor said his clients received the $1.3 million from Montgomery for the purchase of their Bank of Saipan stocks, but the sale was not consummated.
The Calvos earlier stated that Montgomery paid them $1.5 million for the purchase of their stocks. They said that last May 17, they paid $210,000 to the bank through its receiver, attorney Randall T. Fennell.
Montgomery is among the four persons indicted in federal court for conspiracy to defraud the bank of over $6.6 million.
The Calvos said they have “problems” giving the balance of $1.3 million to the bank because of other claims.
O’Connor said his clients knew that Montgomery wanted this money returned to him because his purchase had not been consummated.
O’Connor said the bank, through Fennell, had also demanded the money along with United Forex Corp., UFX investor David Schmidt, Pacific Nakon International Co. and Lamar N. Jenson.
UFX, a brokerage company in California, claims that Montgomery fraudulently obtained this money from it and that it should be returned to its brokerage business.
One of UFX’s investors has retained attorney Timothy H. Bellas to claim $700,000 that allegedly belongs to Schmidt.
O’Connor said Pacific Nakon and Jenson of Utah are claiming that Montgomery transferred his ownership of the bank to them.
“What appears to have happened is Montgomery duped UFX into giving him control of its investors’ money. He then used this money to attempt to purchase the Calvos’ stock, passing it through a Bank of Saipan account and leading the Calvos into believing that the money he paid them for their stock was his money on deposit in the bank,” O’Connor said.
The Calvos, he said, as stockholders simply want to deposit these funds in the court and let these claimants litigate their claims.
The Calvos filed in court a proposed interpleader complaint in which they are the plaintiffs. To be named as defendants are Montgomery, Bank of Saipan, and the other claimants of the money.
