In a letter to the Variety, Maria M. Indalecio, the eldest among the heirs, said they haven’t received their share of the restitution.
“I wish there would be a government intervention so we can have our share of the money,” Indalecio said. She added that they have been seeking lawyers but there is a conflict of interest as most of the lawyers they approached represented the bank or Luis Pelisamen in the past.
Indalecio said before Judge Juan T. Lizama retired, he asked the two administrators for the Rita Kaipat Estate, one of whom was Pelisamen, to distribute to the heirs their share.
She said the court approved her as one of the administrators for their mother Carmen Guilis Muna. One week later, Tony Atalig called her and told her he already had the check from Pelisamen.
She said they deposited the check in the amount of $271,000 at the First Hawaiian Bank but after one week, she said FHB called to tell them the check bounced because of insufficient funds.
She said three days later, they learned that the money was still there, but the balance was only $16,000.
Indalecio said that upon finding out what happened, she called Atalig and they reported the matter to the police and the CNMI Bar Association.
She said all the heirs gathered and they wrote letters to the bank. They also stopped communicating with their lawyers.
Indalecio said Pelisamen admitted that all the money was gone and “that he had spent it.”
She said all their letters and inquiries to the court went unanswered.
The last court hearing for the case was in 2006 and Lizama retired in May 2007.
Indalecio said she was called to testify as a government witness in the case against Pelisamen for two days in 2008 and 2009.
She and the whole clan are wondering how long will they have to wait to get their money.
On Jan. 15, 2010, the federal court ordered Pelisamen to pay $625,775 in criminal restitution for wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Pelisamen used to be the administrator of his grandmother Rita Kaipat’s estate. He was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison.
