THE administration is proposing an amicable settlement for Bank of Saipan in a bid to keep the scandal-plagued financial institution afloat, but one government agency that has money in the bank is already considering litigation.
The Retirement Fund may sue Bank of Saipan if it is found that the bank misled the agency, according to the Fund’s general counsel, Kathleen Troy-Rucker.
“If we were misled or if a fraud was perpetrated against us in order to get us to keep our money there, then…we would definitely consider taking action,” Troy-Rucker said.
The Fund has four separate accounts in the bank totaling more than $5 million. The government’s total deposit in the bank is $18 million.
The Fund’s trustees, however, have not made any decision on the filing of a lawsuit. Troy-Rucker said they will wait for the Attorney General’s Office and the bank receiver to determine if the government had been defrauded.
“But right now, we do not have concrete evidence yet,” she said.
Acting Commerce Secretary Fermin M. Atalig says the administration prefers a settlement that will prevent lawsuits. “That is the most ideal situation. Short of not suing one another, we have to sit down and resolve the issue to keep the bank afloat,” Atalig said yesterday.
The government will continue its investigation, “(but) we are also trying to work closely with all the concerned parties so we can settle this in an amicable way,” he said.
Rodney Jacob, the legal counsel for the bank’s board of directors, did not return this reporter’s call.
Atalig said they want to implement some of the recommendations made by Columbia Financial Institution, an independent regional financial advisory firm that reviewed Bank of Saipan’s status.
Atalig said they also want a change of management at Bank of Saipan.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Robert T. Torres is asking JLH Trust to make an immediate capital infusion of $9.5 million into Bank of Saipan.
The same amount was taken from the bank’s coffer, Torres said in his letter yesterday to attorney David J. Lujan, a trustee of JLH Trust, which is one of the bank’s major shareholders.
Lujan, who sits on the bank’s board of directors, did not return this reporter’s call yesterday.
Torres said acting Commerce Secretary Fermin Atalig is ready to meet with Lujan and his lawyer if the plan to rehabilitate Bank of Saipan through a “substantial infusion of funds” is already in place.
Lujan, in a June 7 letter to the Attorney General’s Office, expressed willingness to cooperate with the government in its efforts to rehabilitate the bank. He said $1.5 million would be infused into Bank of Saipan.
But Torres said the amount cannot even “come close” to securing the government’s total deposits. He said an infusion of $9.5 million, however, would restore the depositors’ confidence in the bank.
