IN Sept. 2014, U.S. Homeland Security Investigation-Saipan personnel received information that Bonifacio “Boni” Sagana was assisting foreign nationals in obtaining new or renewed CNMI driver’s licenses at the local Bureau of Motor Vehicles, according to a recently unsealed document filed in federal court.
HSI Special Agent David West, in an affidavit in support of an application for a search warrant, stated that the foreign nationals assisted by Sagana had no valid U.S. immigration status and were therefore unable to lawfully obtain or renew their driver’s licenses because of CNMI regulations requiring proof of lawful stay in the Commonwealth as part of the licensing or renewal process.
“These individuals allegedly paid Sagana $150 or more for his assistance, which resulted in the individuals receiving a new or renewed CNMI driver’s license,” the HSI agent said.
HSI Saipan identified several individuals who were assisted by Sagana and reviewed their driver’s license applications.
“HSI personnel found that the I-94 documents submitted to the CNMI BMV as evidence of the applicants’ lawful status were, in fact, fraudulent,” West added.
The HSI agent said that they also interviewed a BMV staffer who said that Sagana would always come to the BMV office “carrying a binder.”
Sagana usually retrieved an applicant’s paperwork from the binder and submitted it to BMV staff, the staffer told investigators.
The staffer did not usually interact with Sagana at the front window or conduct the initial screening of the application packets, Wests said.
But the BMV staffer reviewed the documents submitted by Sagana on behalf of the applicants and had observed that the majority of Sagana’s customers were Filipinos, “but he also sometimes brings in and assists Chinese or Bangladeshi people.”
The BMV staffer observed that most of the applicants brought in by Sagana presented photocopies of an I-94 document as their proof of valid U.S. immigration status.
According to the HSI agent, the Department of Homeland Security database had no record of the I-94 documents that Sagana presented to BMV.
HSI agents also interviewed a Superior Court employee who had seen Sagana on many occasions at the courthouse “holding multiple driver’s license applications.”
HSI agents executed a search warrant on Sagana’s Chalan Kanoa house to look for “any documents, including digital copies of records related to immigration documents, driver’s licenses, driver’s license applications, CNMI Superior Court documents, traffic reports, passports, Social Security cards, travel documents, visas or proof of citizenship or nationality, to include any photographs such as pictures and photocopies.”
The HSI agents also searched, among other things, “books, records, documents, notes, correspondence, communications, receipts, photos, and any other papers relating to a scheme to use counterfeit immigration documents to fraudulently obtain driver’s licenses, including (but not limited to) papers associated with the CNMI Bureau of Motor Vehicles.”
West stated that the individuals they interviewed positively identified Sagana in a photo lineup of six males with similar features as the person who assisted them in obtaining a CNMI driver’s license.
Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI has rescheduled Sagana’s jury trial from Dec. 13, 2022, to March 14, 2023.
The jury trial was previously scheduled for Oct. 4 but was moved to Dec. 13.
Sagana’s lawyer, Richard Miller, said the reason for the request to reschedule “is that examination of the many hundreds of pages of discovery, and the work of the defense investigator in September, made it clear that an adequate defense will require the services of a digital forensic expert.”
Miller said it also took him time to find an expert with the requisite training and experience and is available to work at reasonable rates.
Sagana has pleaded not guilty to the charge of conspiracy to unlawfully produce an identification document.
He remains out of custody but is prohibited from leaving the CNMI.
On Jan. 31, 2022, the federal court issued an arrest warrant for Sagana following an indictment charging him with conspiracy to unlawfully produce an identification document.
He was arrested on May 16, 2022, in Wisconsin.
