Brown: 5 more garment firms may close down

At least five more Saipan garment factories are likely to shut down operations soon, according to the Attorney General’s Office, prompting it to closely monitor these companies, including their capability to meet their tax obligations.

As this developed, attorney general Pamela Brown disclosed that she would soon appoint a special prosecutor that would handle cases involving the garment industry.

The special assistant attorney general for garment will be empowered to prosecute criminal, civil and administrative actions involving garment factories. Brown did not name the special prosecutor yet, but said she would announce the designee in a press conference sometime next week.

“It [garment industry] is something that this office is going to focus on,” Brown said.

The Saipan Tribune tried to obtain comments from Saipan Garment Manufacturing Association executive director Richard A. Pierce but messages left on his cell phone were not returned as of press time.

While the AGO has been regularly monitoring Saipan’s garment factories, Brown said her office will be paying particular attention to five of them after receiving information that they would likely shut down operations soon. She did not name the five but said these factories are besides La Mode, Sako Corp. and Mariana Fashions, which have already closed down.

“Anything that the CNMI has to spend regarding a garment factory that goes down, I’m going to be going after those garment factory owners and shareholders and assets and anything else I can find to pay back the government because I don’t think that taxpayers should be burdened with this expense,” Brown said.

She said some 100 displaced garment workers have been repatriated so far, the cost of which have been shouldered mostly by the government’s deportation fund.

The attorney general warned factory owners attempting to leave the CNMI without first settling their obligations that they face possible arrest.

“We’re able to apprehend people as they try to leave and I’m going to continue doing that—not letting the owners just depart free and clear like they have nothing to do with all these [problems]. When factories go down, they [owners] can expect to be delayed with their departure. The workers are delayed,” she said.

The AGO recently lodged criminal charges against Sako and two of its officers—Hee Kun Kyun and Hyung Ki Min—for alleged deliberate failure to truthfully account for and pay taxes on several taxable quarters from July 31, 2002 to Jan. 30, 2005. The unpaid taxes reached approximately $1.3 million, according to CNMI chief prosecutor David Hutton.

The AGO’s probe on Sako and its affiliate companies—Mariana Fashions and Dong Dang Fashion Corp.—began after the firms decided to cease business operations on Saipan. The AGO had requested the court for the detention of three other officers of the companies as “material witnesses” to the probe. The court granted the petitions, but the officers—Jun Young Ham, Ha Myung Sam and Karmina Okamura—have been released from jail after posting bail.

Earlier reports said that Sako managed to ship some of its equipment to Cambodia. The AGO pursued its probe on the company and pressed charges against it and two of its officers, suspecting that the defendants would transfer money and equipment out of the CNMI and evade tax payments.