Special Prosecutor Michael Copeland said he firmly believes that they will be able to bring Taunton back to Palau so the former bank executive can be tried before a Palauan court for the crimes he has been charged with.
Copeland said there were two occasions within the past year-and-a half when they believed they were close to capturing Taunton.Taunton and several individuals have been charged for causing the bank’s failure in Nov. 2006.Then-Independent Counsel Lewis Harley handled the investigation and prosecution of these cases but later dismissed the charges for other defendants except Taunton’s.Copeland took over the PSB cases in January. “After the recent holding in the January trial of one of the PSB insiders, we are dismissing some of the cases filed by Independent Counsel Harley and re-filing some of the others to better fit our legal theory of the case,” Copeland said.The trial division of the Supreme Court has dismissed the charges against Tadao Ngotel, Elubuchel Sadang, Leo BenTeriong, Wilbert Kamerang, Evence Imetengel, Naomi Ueki and Hideo Termeteet.The charges against Ngotel were dismissed without prejudice while those against Sadang, Teriong, Kamerang, Imetengel, Ueki and Termeteet were dismissed without prejudice.Copeland said they may file new charges against some individuals based on information they received from sources working on the PSB cases.He said they also have ongoing civil lawsuits against several individuals and are about to proceed into collecting a $22 million judgment obtained against Taunton.“We are working with the PSB receiver’s office which continue to do an excellent job bringing in money for the depositors,” Copeland said.“They have collected over $1.7 million on behalf of the depositors and should collect much more in the coming year when assets are sold,” he added.Copeland said there will be more civil and criminal cases filed in connection with PSB.
