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Sun says he can’t use his $8,500 cash to post bail
Sen Sun could not use as an appearance bond the $8,500 that was seized from him because it has been converted by the U.S. government to a cashier’s check and mailed off-island for safekeeping.
Sun, through counsel Benjamin K. Petersburg, is asking the U.S. District Court for the NMI to amend his conditions of release to require an unsecured bond rather than cash.
At a detention hearing last Nov. 15, U.S. District Court for the NMI Magistrate Judge Heather Kennedy allowed Sun’s temporary release to a third-party custodian as soon as he posts an $8,500 bond, plus other conditions.
Sun, allegedly an overstaying Chinese tourist, was indicted in federal court for allegedly operating an unlicensed business that offered trip packages to pregnant Chinese women seeking to give birth here.
The indictment charged Sun with harboring illegal aliens, unlawfully employing aliens, and money laundering.
In Sun’s latest motion, Petersburg said there was a mistake at the detention hearing and that Sun does not have cash to post as security. At that hearing, Petersburg said, the U.S. government’s lawyer told the court that Sun had $8,500 when he was arrested by federal agents.
He said that unknown to Kennedy and Sun, the U.S. government had already converted the cash to a cashier’s check and mailed it off-island for safekeeping. He said he only learned about this after the hearing.
Petersburg said the U.S. government intends to forfeit the cash and will not make it available for Sun to use as security for his temporary release.
Petersburg now wants to amend the conditions of Sun’s release to an unsecured appearance bond but said the U.S. government intends to oppose this.
