The U.S. District Court of Guam has already sentenced Aguilar to five years’ probation.
“The court believes that Mr. Aguilar’s misconduct has resulted in serious injuries to the legal profession, many former clients, to the public, and to the legal system in general and finds that the appropriate discipline is disbarment,” said Judge David A. Wiseman in his six-page order of attorney discipline.
Wiseman has been designated by Presiding Judge Robert C. Naraja to handle the proceeding pursuant to Commonwealth Disciplinary Rules.
The CNMI Supreme Court received a certified conviction from the U.S. District Court of Guam in Oct. 2010, and referred this matter to Naraja as required by the rules.
Wiseman ruled that Aguilar is disbarred from practicing law in the courts or otherwise in the commonwealth and his name is stricken from the roll of admitted attorneys of the CNMI Bar.
Aguilar will notify his clients and others about his disbarment.
He will pay the court any costs for the prosecution of this matter, Wiseman said.
Prior to re-admission to practice before local courts, Aguilar will take and pass the CNMI Bar Exam including the multistate professional responsibility examination.
Aguilar will satisfy all terms and conditions of any judgments of the Superior Court that may be outstanding, and will pay to any and all clients the sum of any unearned retainer fees.
Wiseman said: “This is the second incident with respect to an attorney being disciplined for felony convictions, and it is therefore imperative, that the proper discipline be given in order to set the standard for other attorneys practicing law here in the CNMI.”
The court noted that when Aguilar was convicted on Guam, he abandoned his law offices, clients, and their files on Saipan.
According to Wiseman, “There were many former clients of Aguilar who had paid legal fees to his office and had important pending matters being represented by him, in and out of court, and when they followed up on the status of their cases and their files, there were none to be found, and they were left to deal with his secretary.”
Early this month, the U.S. District Court for the NMI granted the prosecution’s motion to dismiss without prejudice the mail fraud complaint against Maria Nina Dolot Castro, a staffer from Aguilar’s law office, who will be charged in CNMI Superior Court “with associated crimes.”
U.S. Homeland Security Investigations said Castro accepted money orders to pay certain application fees for immigration processing, but instead used the money orders for her own purposes, from on or about Oct. 27, 2009 through on or about March 2001.
In his order of attorney discipline, Wiseman added: “There were absolutely no provisions made for the many clients he represented, and no refund of unearned fees that were paid by clients in several cases, which indicate a callous and gross indifference for the judiciary and the clients he agreed to represent. In view of such aggravating factors, the court believes that the imposition of disbarment along with several conditions for any future readmission is warranted.”
The Guam Supreme Court has suspended Aguilar for five years.
U.S. Internal Revenue Service said Aguilar withdrew the amount of $100,000 on May 14, 2009, and another $84,947.49 on May 15, 2009 from a bank on Saipan, “knowing that said money represented proceeds of mail fraud” through a fraudulent Citibank cashier’s check.
Aguilar “explained that he received the fraudulent Citibank cashier’s check in the mail.”
The IRS said “Aguilar admitted he knew it was wrong not to return the funds as requested…but he was not thinking properly at the time.”
