Previous Story
DPS clerk in fraud case
|
Posted on Jul 14 2000
For using government account to make personal long-distance calls, a 24-year old clerk at the Department of Public Safety on Rota is now facing imprisonment, a fine and other punishment by the U.S. District Court here.
Trina G. Taisacan yesterday entered into a plea agreement with federal prosecutors for one count of wire fraud, waiving a grand jury indictment to accept responsibility for the felony offense.
She admitted incurring phone bills of between $10,000 to $20,000 paid by the CNMI government for making several overseas calls and allowing others to use the account entrusted to her by the DPS.
Based on court documents, her unlawful phone calls began from January 1997 until its discovery on November 30, 1999, which constitute a fraud against Commonwealth’s citizens and government.
On May 27, 1999, Ms. Taisacan made many unauthorized personal long-distance calls from Rota to Oregon, using an official DPS telephone credit calling card issued to her only for the purpose of making official phone calls, the complaint said.
She also admitted giving out the account number to several unauthorized individuals with the intent to let them use the same for personal calls at the expense of the CNMI government.
Because of the disclosure, many of those individuals also provided the same account number to other people who “further abused the calling card,” the complaint said.
Although initial estimates placed the total billings at between $10,000 to $20,000, the court said it will make a final determination of the amount which could exceed that range.
Ms. Taisacan, who as DPS clerk/typist earns annual salary of a little over $10,000, could face a maximum of five years in jail, a fine of up to $250,000, supervised release after imprisonment of up to three years and restitution for the phone charges she incurred.
The plea agreement, however, indicated the prosecution agreed to recommend a minimum time of incarceration under the sentencing guideline to be determined by the U.S. Probation Office.
District Judge Alex R. Munson has yet to set a date of her sentencing as she still has to appear in court to plea guilty to the fraud charge.
