Pangelinan allegedly caught anew in Internet fraud dealings

Benny K. Pangelinan, a former Coastal Resources Management official who has already served a three-year prison sentence for wire fraud and is under investigation again for allegedly committing the same offenses, was reportedly caught anew wiring money to a person that he claims to be his girlfriend from Australia whom he met on the Internet.

U.S. Probation Officer Gregory F. Arriola asked the U.S. District Court for the NMI yesterday to revoke Pangelinan’s supervised release for violating his probation conditions.

The district court summoned Pangelinan to appear in court today, Thursday, to explain why his supervised release should not be revoked.

In a petition filed in September, Arriola said that Pangelinan borrowed $21,450 from a couple and over $11,000 from a family member, both with promises to double the amounts once he gets large sums of money that he was expecting to receive.

In his supplemental declaration filed yesterday, Arriola said that he went to Pangelinan’s house on Monday, Oct. 31, to inform him of an upcoming counseling session with Marianas Psychiatric Services but did not find him there. Arriola said he later found Pangelinan standing in front of a building across the Town House Shopping Center talking on a cell phone. Pangelinan was later seen entering Raj Shopping in the same area.

When he walked into the shop, Arriola said that, Pangelinan, who was sitting behind a desktop computer, immediately closed an email account and attempted to conceal a piece of paper that he crumpled and dropped on the floor. Pangelinan allegedly explained that he was trying to contact his son in Oregon through the Internet.

Arriola reminded him that he has been given specific instructions to stop using the Internet as he had been communicating with scammers.

Arriola then questioned the shop’s owner, who disclosed that Pangelinan was a frequent customer in the past two months and paid mainly for Internet access.

Arriola said that Pangelinan later confessed that the number written on the paper was a Western Union routing number as he was sending money to his girlfriend, Carole J. Millar, in Australia, to help her purchase a ticket to Saipan.

When asked where he was getting the money, Pangelinan said that he was using his retirement pay. Her ticket allegedly cost $2,000 and the $300 that Pangelinan just sent her was the final amount needed to buy the ticket.

Arriola said he attempted again to explain that he was being manipulated by online scammers, but Pangelinan stated that Millar should arrive on Saipan within the week. Arriola said he advised Pangelinan to return home and to cease accessing the Internet.

In January 2007, a federal jury found Pangelinan guilty of five wire fraud charges, stemming from his activities to defraud potential investors and his involvement in various Internet fraud schemes.

In April 2007, the court sentenced him to three years and one month in prison. After serving the sentence, he was placed on three years of supervised release.

The court ordered Pangelinan to pay a total of $129,250 in restitution to five victims.