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Ex-CUC employee found guilty
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Posted on Dec 22 2008
One of the five former Commonwealth Utilities Corp. employees accused of being part of a disconnection scam has been found guilty of one count of violation of the CUC Code.
CNMI Superior Court Associate Judge Ramona V. Manglona found Francisco F. Faisao guilty in a decision issued yesterday.
Manglona set the sentencing for Feb. 4, 2009.
Faisao could spend a maximum of five years in prison.
Earlier, Manglona dismissed three charges against Faisao after he and four other ex-CUC staff were accused of engaging in a scam by purposely skipping the names of family members and friends from a power disconnection list.
The charges dismissed included one count of theft of services and two counts of conspiracy to commit theft of services.
The dismissal came after the Attorney General’s Office moved to drop the charges with finality.
Faisao, who was represented by counsel Edward Arriola Sr., was accused of getting a sum of $1,096.85 in the scam but he pleaded not guilty to the charge.
It would be recalled that on May 24, 2007, authorities arrested former CUC employees, including a supervisor who, in exchange for cash, allegedly conspired to reconnect individuals who have been disconnected or to not disconnect delinquent accounts. The scheme resulted in a loss of over $300,000 for CUC.
The others accused were former CUC administrative support assistant Manuel Q. Camacho (for allegedly stealing over $1,000 that was intended for payment of a company’s power bill), credit and collection supervisor Elaine Q. Terlaje, customer service representative Rita I. Tarope, disconnection crew members Ricardo C. Sablan, Joaquin E. Norita and Faisao.
Terlaje, Tarope, Sablan, Norita, and Faisao were accused of conspiracy to commit theft and misconduct in public office.
Accordingly, the suspects were pocketing money to reconnect individuals who have been disconnected or to keep the power on for delinquent accounts and were also allegedly skipping the names of family members and friends from the power disconnection list.
