REPRESENTATIVE Stanley T. Torres is urging the CNMI government to ask the federal government to intervene in the filing of criminal charges against certain major shareholders and directors of Bank of Saipan.
Acting Commerce Secretary Fermin M. Atalig earlier said that possible criminal violations had been committed by these shareholders and bank officials.
“They should go after these people with the help of the federal government. Maybe the Attorney General’s Office and the federal government can conduct a joint investigation. If they are the cause of this major financial problem, they should answer for their misdeeds,” said Torres, R-Saipan and chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means.
Atalig also said a plan would be developed to address the issues outlined in an independent report detailing alleged misappropriation of over $3.5 million of bank funds by the Calvos and JHL Pacific Trust.
Torres said AGO and the federal government should look into some of the shareholders who received monies that were allegedly taken out of the bank.
“The investigators would be able to open a can of worms if they will dig into this fiasco. It is unthinkable that these respectable gentlemen, statesmen and businessmen who are possibly the largest entrepreneurs in the entire Marianas Islands (have duped) a poor people’s bank. They are already the millionaires of the Marianas and it is inconceivable that they would still have an insatiable greed for money,” he said.
