Manglona pleads guilty • Guilty plea and resignation from Senate are unpleasant birthday gifts

Federal Judge Alex Munson unsealed yesterday a plea agreement which contained former Tinian Sen. Herman Manglona’s admission to charges of bribe-taking, mail fraud, and jury-tampering.

Court documents showed that Manglona pled guilty last Sept. 13. He resigned from the Senate the following day, Sept. 14, a day before his birthday.

Manglona was indicted for soliciting and accepting bribe money from Sablan Construction Ltd., Inc. when he was mayor of Tinian.

Sablan Construction, which rents heavy equipment, was subsequently rewarded by the Tinian Mayor’s Office with contracts for the rent of payloaders and dump trucks, among others.

Manglona had raked in a total of $14,500 which he received in seven installments from February 1996 to December 1996, according to court records.

Sablan Construction owner Jesus S. Sablan and his nephew Tito Sablan earlier pled guilty to the same charges.

Manglona was indicted by a grand jury on Aug. 25, the same day that he and his aide James King Manglona were charged with attempt to influence a juror into voting “no” to his indictment. James Manglona later admitted to tampering with the jury.

The indictment revealed that it was Tito Sablan who mediated between Manglona and Jesus S. Sablan in forging the deal plotted as early as November 1995.

According to the indictment, the anomalous transactions, which involved federally funded programs, resulted in US government’s giving the CNMI an excess of $10,000 in infrastructure funds during the period covered.

Investigation found that Manglona rented heavy equipment from Sablan Construction “at inflated hourly rates” and billed the CNMI government accordingly.

The indictment stated that Manglona “authorized the CNMI government to pay [Sablan Construction] in the inflated hourly rates without revealing . . . that a portion of the payment would be secretly paid to him in cash.”

The mail fraud charge was based on Manglona’s “unauthorized mail depository” he sent. It contained a check representing Sablan Construction’s invoice computed on the bloated rates.

Manglona received the first bribe money in February 1996 when Sablan Construction wrote an invoice bearing the amount of $9,527 for a rental service that actually cost only $8,627.

Sablan Construction “secretly” paid Manglona the difference, the court documents said.

In the succeeding payments, Manglona received amounts ranging from $2,000 to $4,887.

From April to December of 1996, Sablan Construction billed the government $16,997 from which the former mayor received a “commission” of $4,623.

Manglona, who was represented by Guam lawyer David Lujan, is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 21.

The crime carries a maximum term of 10 years in federal prison.

But the plea agreement which the former mayor signed with Assistant US Atty. Kevin Seely may give him less number of years.

Seely, however, did not make any recommendation as to the punishment term.

“It is uncertain at this time what the sentence will be,” the plea agreement read.

By virtue of the plea agreement, Manglona is not allowed to leave the CNMI without consent from the court. (MCM)