US govt seeks to vacate trial in case vs Tinian Dynasty

The U.S. government has requested the federal court to vacate the Feb. 9, 2015, trial date in the criminal case against the owner of Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino as their settlement deal is ongoing.

During a status conference on Friday, assistant U.S. attorney Marivic David informed U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona that the U.S. government had advised the lawyer for Hong Kong Entertainment (Overseas) Investments Ltd. that they have submitted their request for settlement to the appropriate agencies in Main Justice in Washington, D.C.

David said the agencies are aware of what the parties propose to settle in the case.

David also disclosed that the U.S. government has received additional documentation from HKE counsel for submission to Main Justice.

The prosecutor made an oral motion to vacate the Feb. 9 trial date and continue it for another month, based “on the interests of justice.”

HKE counsel Bruce Berline opposed the motion and requested that the U.S. government put that motion in writing.

Berline asked for additional time in order to obtain consent from his client, HKE.

Manglona said the parties have reached an agreement but have yet to finalize it formally.

Manglona did not rule on the prosecution’s motion to continue the trial in order to allow HKE the opportunity to lodge any objection.

The judge, however, informed the parties that she was inclined to grant the motion but only for a short continuance.

Manglona set a hearing for the motion to continue the trial for Feb. 2 at 8:30am.

The U.S. government filed in November 2014 a second superseding indictment that contains 158 criminal charges against Hong Kong Entertainment (Overseas) Investment Ltd.

The charges are one count of conspiracy to cause a financial institution to fail to file a currency transaction report or CTR, 155 counts of failure to file a CTR, one count of failure to file a suspicious activity report, and one count of failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program. The indictment also has a notice of forfeiture.

The initial indictment had charged HKE and then-VIP services manager George Que and then-casino manager Tim Blyth with only 10 charges. Que and Blyth had entered into a settlement deal with the U.S. government in exchange for the dismissal of the criminal charges against them.

According to the indictment, HKE allowed gamblers at Tinian Dynasty to conduct transactions involving more than $10,000 without filing CTRs with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network from September 2009 to April 25, 2013.

Tinian Dynasty allegedly failed to file about 3,640 CTRs for cash transactions over $10,000 as required by law. The total dollar amount of reportable currency transactions that were not filed is about $1.38 million. (Ferdie de la Torre)