From left, Tina Sanchez, Charissa Tenorio and Tenorio’s attorney, Kristine Borja enter the District Court of Guam in Anigua on Thursday for an arraignment hearing.
Photo by David Castro/The Guam Daily Post
HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Six of the seven defendants accused of defrauding the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program out of $1.9 million pleaded not guilty in the District Court of Guam on Thursday.
Charissa Tenorio, Tina Sanchez, Winnie Joe Santos, Frankie Rosalin, Marlene Pinaula, Matthew Topasna and Kathleen Peredo appeared in federal court for their arraignment hearings, about a week after being indicted with federal charges related to conspiracy to defraud the PUA program between July 2020 until September 2021.
Charissa Tenorio is the sister of Lt. Gov. Joshua Tenorio and Topasna is the lieutenant governor’s partner.
Of the seven, Charissa Tenorio, Sanchez, Santos, Rosalin, Peredo and Pinaula pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, nine counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, and 18 counts of mail fraud.
According to the indictment, Charissa Tenorio, her romantic partner, Rosalin, and Tina Sanchez, Rosalin’s mother, were involved in operating landscaping business Comfort Cuts and Ground Maintenance LLC, and are accused of providing PUA applications to employees to only partially complete, and other applications with Rosalin’s signature which “falsely claimed” the individuals had been “laid off or furloughed” from Comfort Cuts. The charges maintain that Comfort Cuts continued to employ these individuals to “perform and receive payment for work on several Guam government contracts,” and private homes and businesses.
Charissa Tenorio, Sanchez and Santos were additionally accused of directing employees at Comfort Cuts to turn over half or more of the initial PUA payment in cash to Charissa Tenorio at the Comfort Cuts office, or following employees to the bank where the checks were cashed and made sure a portion was turned over to Tenorio, the indictments stated.
The seven defendants’ nine charges of wire fraud stem from the conspirators wiring money that was intended to go to individuals who were approved for PUA. Similarly, 18 checks meant for applicants were mailed to the conspirators.
Peredo, who was employed by the Guam Department of Labor as the PUA program manager, and Marlene Pinaula, who was part of the GDOL staff with the PUA program during the conspiracy, also pleaded not guilty to federal program theft. Peredo and Pinaula are accused of using their roles to ensure fraudulent PUA checks were delivered to members of the conspiracy, according to the indictment.
Charissa Tenorio, who is also charged with money laundering and two counts of witness tampering, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
According to the indictment, Charissa Tenorio’s money laundering charge stems from allegedly withdrawing $12,530 on Sept. 16, 2020 which came from the fraudulently obtained benefits, while the witness tampering charges stem from allegations that Charissa Tenorio “intentionally harassed” two people on Aug. 6, and Aug. 7, 2024, with the goal of preventing individuals from reporting the conspiracy.
Of the seven defendants, Topasna did not enter into a plea for his charges because of an objection to Topasna’s attorney, Joaquin “Jay” Arriola Jr. serving as an attorney in the case. The issue was discussed during a hearing on Thursday before the arraignments, a portion of which was under seal.
Magistrate Judge Michael Bordallo, rather than allow Topasna’s arraignment to continue, ordered the issue to be briefed before Topasna pleads guilty or not guilty to the charges. The briefing and subsequent hearing on the issue will be under seal.
The indictment states Topasna, who owned and operated a food truck business, Haute Dog & Company, is accused of providing letters to employees and to individuals “who had never worked for HDC” in similar fashion to Comfort Cuts, and falsely claimed that the individuals had been employed at HDC, but were “laid off or furloughed” during the pandemic. Topasna is also accused of applying for PUA on his own behalf and falsely claimed his company never operated.
Following each defendant pleading to their respective charges, Bordallo set jury selection and trial for Sept. 3, which will be held before District Court of the Northern Mariana Islands Chief Judge Ramona Manglona.
According to federal court records, District Court of Guam Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood disqualified herself from the proceedings under federal law, which allows the self recusal of a judge in “any proceeding in which impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”
Evidence
At the close of the hearing, Rosalin’s counsel Heather Quitugua inquired if Bordallo could order the U.S. Attorney’s Office to confirm the identities of 25 individuals named only by their initials in the indictment.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Petersburg responded the names of the 25 people “will be made clear” when about 100,000 pages of discovery is turned over to defense counsel by the July 10 deadline set by Bordallo.
Bordallo also asked defense counsels to wait and explained he would not order the identities to be turned over immediately unless a motion was filed.
Attorney Kristine Borja, Charissa Tenorio’s counsel, also asked for the names to ensure her client does not violate conditions of her pretrial release, which includes restricting contact with anyone involved in the case.
Bordallo responded, “Nobody will be sanctioned if (the defendants) didn’t know (the witnesses) were involved.”
Bordallo also explained the main concern with the anonymous witnesses currently is whether their identities would result in a conflict of interest with attorneys representing defendants.
