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Bank fraud suspect arrested anew for allegedly applying for Phil. passport
Earl Eric Cruz Mirano, a 32-year-old man facing charges of conspiring to commit bank fraud, was arrested again yesterday after the Federal Bureau of Investigation found out that he had applied for a Philippine passport.
Federal agents picked up Mirano after U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona issued the arrest warrant yesterday. No bail was set.
Mirano was taken to court yesterday afternoon. As of press time, there was no information as to what transpired at the hearing.
It was the U.S. Probation Office that asked the court to issue the arrest warrant.
The court had allowed Mirano to remain free while his bank fraud case remains pending but one of the special conditions is that he must not obtain a passport or other international travel document.
Probation Officer Gregory F. Arriola stated in the petition that, on June 21, 2012, FBI special agent Hae Jun Park informed him that Mirano had applied for a Philippine passport and had recently picked up a document from the Philippine Consulate General.
The following day, Arriola said, he received from Park a photocopied document titled “Passport application enrollment certificate.”
Arriola said the document indicated that Mirano had applied for a Philippine passport on April 26, 2012. He said a stamp on the document signified that it was released on June 20, 2012.
Arriola noted that Mirano had informed U.S. probation officer Margarita Wonenberg during a bail interview that his passport was expired and was at his home.
Soon after that, Mirano allegedly told Arriola that he could not locate his passport, but gave a copy of the document.
Arriola said the Philippine passport application form indicated that he had lost his passport, yet included an affidavit attesting to having a mutilated passport.
The probation officer said the copy of the expired/mutilated passport with the application form does not match the passport copy that Mirano provided him.
Last month, Arriola also informed the court that Mirano admitted to a U.S. probation officer that he used methamphetamine or “ice” on April 13, 2012, while released on bail in his federal criminal case.
The U.S. government recently filed a new indictment against Mirano and Mohammad Jahangir Miah in the scheme to cash fraudulent CNMI tax refund checks. The new indictment charged Miah and Mirano with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud.
Last month, police arrested Mirano on charges of misuse of a credit card and theft by deception.
