‘Saipan stores, restaurants fencing stolen garments’

Apparel items being stolen from Saipan factories are turning up in retail stores and restaurants on the island, where they are being sold at bargain basement prices, according to the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association.

The association said these stores are aware that the items are stolen and buy them in shady transactions that rob the government of potential revenue.

SGMA executive director Richard A. Pierce said the association has already identified and approached “four or five” establishments in San Antonio and Garapan selling goods still labeled with brands “that would never allow them to be sold without their permission.”

Pierce is urging the CNMI government to help it rid the CNMI of this illegal practice and has called on the Babauta administration to partner with the industry in stamping out this fencing activity.

This came about soon after Pierce met with four board members of the association to discuss the matter.

Pierce has asked the CNMI Attorney General’s Office, and the AGO’s Consumer Protection Agency Office, CNMI Customs Service Division, CNMI Revenue and Taxation and the Department of Public Safety to organize enforcement efforts to stop the illegal sales of items manufactured in Saipan factories that have made their way into bargain sales bins around the island.

“SGMA knows these $3 and $5 apparel items have been stolen from the factories. They are being purchased behind the scenes, stores are buying them knowing they are stolen, they are selling them in the open, excise and business gross receipts taxes are not being paid, and legitimate retailers are being deprived of legitimate sales,” Pierce said.

SGMA believes that if the CNMI Customs Service Division’s enforcement officers are properly trained on how to identify these merchandise on display—and SGMA has offered to provide that training—they can stop the trafficking in stolen goods.

“Our shirts are being stolen, taxes not being paid by the stores turning them over, and Revenue and Tax is not receiving the receipts tax they deserve because the merchant isn’t reporting the transaction from front to back,” according to Pierce.

In letters addressed to the AGO, Customs and Finance’s Revenue and Tax, Pierce wrote, “We want it stopped. The CNMI government has to step in here. They are the ones losing the tax dollars, not us.”

He said the association would inform the government where these stolen items are being sold, train personnel on identification techniques and accompany enforcement officers on “sting operations” where they can catch the vendors red-handed.

SGMA believes that the enforcement work will net the CNMI additional tax revenue and lessen the demand for any stolen merchandise.