He said these lawyers’ “primary loyalties are not to retirees/beneficiaries though their salaries/compensation are being provided via expenditure of considerable amounts of Fund assets which are the property of retirees/beneficiaries.”
Instead, he added, “these lawyers’ primary loyalties are to the Fund administrators and Fund board members who have hired them, but then pay them using Fund assets which these Fund administrators and Fund board members themselves, are by effect of utmost fiduciary duty, supposed to be protecting and conserving.”
Jorgensen these lawyers are reportedly getting some $25,000 a month from the Fund.
He was supposed to file a new motion in federal court, but said there had been a “change of plans.”
On Oct. 1, after Jorgensen filed an emergency motion in federal court, Gov. Benigno R. Fitial included 11 Retirement Fund position on the list of essential services.
Guam Federal Court Judge Frances M. Tydingco Gatewood gave Jorgensen until Oct. 11 to file for a motion to lift the order of stay.
Gatewood granted the motion for substitution of parties, but did not consider the Oct. 1 emergency motion filed by Jorgensen who asked the court for the issuance of a temporary restraining order and further legal and equitable relief as to the effect on the Retirement Fund of the CNMI’s constitutionally mandated government shutdown, which ended on Sunday..
The anonymous plaintiffs “John Doe and Jane Roe” were replaced by David L. Price, former Rep. Tina Sablan and Carmela Sablan. Sapuro Rayphand, a director of the Commonwealth Retirees Association, has expressed willingness to join the lawsuit.
If successful, the class action will result in the seizure of CNMI government assets like the Commonwealth Utilities Corp., the Commonwealth Ports Authority and the Commonwealth Health Center.
The U.S. court will also enforce the outstanding $231 million judgment against the CNMI government.
