Miah’s sentencing postponed again due to his new case

The federal court postponed anew the scheduled sentencing on Friday of Mohammad Jahangir Miah in the wake of new charges filed against him for alleged involvement in a scam involving the cashing of fraudulent CNMI tax refund checks in grocery stores.

U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona on Friday postponed Miah’s sentencing after the U.S. government asked the court to declare Miah in breach of a plea agreement that he entered in connection with the driver’s license scam case.

This is the sixth time that Miah’s sentencing has been postponed, according to court records.

Manglona set an evidentiary hearing on the prosecution’s motion on Thursday at 1:30pm.

The judge also noted that Miah should get a conflict-free counsel because of the new case and appointed attorney Colin Thompson for that role.

Attorney Joseph Horey withdrew as Miah’s counsel in the new case. After the hearing on Friday, Horey also withdrew as his counsel in the driver’s license scam case.

Assistant U.S. attorney Garth R. Backe said the plea agreement that Miah entered with the U.S. government in August last year expressly states that, if he “engages in criminal conduct after the entry of his plea agreement and before sentencing,” the government would then “be free from its obligations under the agreement.”

Backe said that Miah, on the other hand, would remain “guilty of the matters to which he had pled pursuant to this agreement.”

The prosecutor said that the U.S. government officially notifies both Miah and the court of its position that Miah has engaged in criminal conduct, breaching the agreement.

Miah, through Horey, objected to Backe’s motions. The defense counsel said the issues of the new case play no part in the sentencing. Horey said it is the U.S. government that breached the plea agreement.

“The plea agreement provides that certain consequences may result if he [Miah] commits another crime, but nowhere in it does he promise not to commit one,” Horey said.

By contrast, the defense lawyer said, the U.S. government is in breach of the plea agreement by its endorsement of recommendations of the U.S. Probation Office.

Horey said the government is committed under the plea agreement in the old case to make a recommendation of “no upward departures of any kind under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.

Horey said the U.S. Probation Office’s presentence investigation report made a recommendation contrary to this, recommending an upward departure for inadequate criminal history.

Horey said the government’s response, by contrast, was to state that it has no objection to the presentence investigation report.

“This amounts to an endorsement of Probation’s position, which is contrary to the plea agreement, and is thus a breach,” he pointed out.

On Aug. 19, 2011, Miah, one of the five suspects in a driver’s license scam at the Department of Public Safety, pleaded guilty in federal court to a count of conspiring to unlawfully produce and transfer identification documents. He was placed on home confinement pending his sentencing.

Last Monday, FBI agents arrested Miah after the U.S. government filed a criminal complaint charging him with conspiracy to commit bank fraud.