Wiseman granted the ex-parte motion for order shortening time filed by the Fund lawyers Christopher M. Timmons and Carolyn M. Kern.
The Fund sued William S. Torres and Jesusa B. Dris in Superior Court, and both have questioned the subpoenas served on them by the Fund.
In an e-mail to the Variety, Torres said he “was just provided a copy [of the petition] late [Wednesday] and have not had a chance to read it. Kindly forward your questions and would make an attempt to respond to your queries.”
Dris and Torres were former consultants for SHEFA.
Variety tried but failed to get a comment from Dris.
Named as third party in the administrative investigation were former SHEFA Board Chairwoman and now Vice Speaker Felicidad T. Ogumoro and former Saipan Mayor Juan B. Tudela.
The defendants and the third parties made a concerted effort to resist compulsive discovery, each raising nearly identical objections to subpoenas duly issued by the Fund’s hearing officer, former Judge Edward Manibusan, according to the petition filed in court.
While the Fund maintains that its “administrator had sufficient evidence to support his adverse determination, for multiple reasons, it is imperative that the Fund gather all available evidence in support of its position in order to present a full factual record to the hearing officer in the pending appeals, the petition stated.
The Fund estimates that the overpayments amount to almost $200,000 of the estimated total amount of $500,000 it seeks to recover for the overpayment of benefits to Dris and Torres alone, the petition stated.
“Given the high stakes involved, the defendants have pulled out all stops even to the extent of coordinating efforts with third party deponents to prevent the Fund from gathering of the sham they put forth to allow them to be paid by both the Fund and SHEFA,” according to the petition.
The Office of the Public Auditor “indicated that the contracts which the defendants claim are the basis for their status as non-employee sole source independent contractors did not comply with the CNMI Procurement Act,” the petition noted.
