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Tourist in counterfeiting case may enter plea agreement
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Posted on Jul 19 2000
A Cameroon tourist accused in a fraud scheme on Saipan waived yesterday his right for speedy trial in the U.S. District Court as his lawyer negotiates for a possible plea bargaining with the federal prosecutors.
Judge Alex R. Munson, however, set a jury trial of Andre Didier Tella, 31, on September 18 if there is no plea agreement reached by that time.
He is initially scheduled to be tried on Monday, but the extension granted by the court will allow both parties to further review the case.
Mr. Tella, from the western central African nation’s capital of Yuande, is charged with one count of wire fraud in connection with an alleged scheme to defraud a Saipan-based businessman amounting to $130,000.
He remains in the custody of both federal and local authorities as he has also been slapped with criminal charges in the CNMI Superior Court.
At yesterday’s hearing, the accused appeared in orange-regulated prison uniform with his court-appointed lawyer Bruce Berline and a French interpreter.
Mr. Tella arrived on the island on a visitor’s visa last April 4, but was arrested a month later after the alleged crime was uncovered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
It involved counterfeiting $100 dollar bills by means of a chemical process which he and another suspect, Sylvester Etah, presented to Shi Ching Ke, owner of Mickies Bar on Saipan, to entice him to invest by providing real paper money.
The businessman handed over $130,000 to the two in exchange for $300,000 in fake hundred dollar bills that the two supposedly would manufacture.
FBI agents recovered $39,000 in U.S. currency, several chemicals and other miscellaneous products during a search at Mr. Tella’s rented room in Paradise Hotel.
The wire fraud charge, a felony, carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment.
