Sako directed to turn over monies to EEOC

The U.S. District Court ordered Sako Corp. yesterday to assign to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission all of its deposits and account receivables to satisfy the court’s over $1-million judgment.

Chief judge Alex R. Munson authorized the U.S. Marshal to endorse the name of Sako on any check, draft, money order, note or other instruments, and deposit and remit the proceeds to the EEOC office in San Francisco.

“Sako shall turn over any and all documentary evidence of any of the accounts, including but not limited to any checks, drafts, money orders, deposits, deposit accounts, books, records, papers or files, listing of accounts, accounts receivable ledgers or journals, to and on behalf of the U.S. Marshal,” the judge ordered.

The judge barred Sako from selling, mortgaging, cashing or alienating any of the accounts, directing the company to appear before the clerk of court weekly beginning May 3 to testify on the condition of its accounts.

Munson earlier declared Sako liable to the EEOC in the amount of over $1 million, in a lawsuit that the commission brought to court on behalf of some 65 workers. The judge had declared Sako in default of the lawsuit.

The EEOC filed the case against Sako last Sept. 16, after some 65 non-Chinese workers complained that their employment contracts were not renewed on the basis of their national origin.

“They were replaced by Chinese workers, who, in some cases, had to be trained by some of the replaced charging parties to take over their jobs,” the EEOC said.

While some of the displaced workers have already left Saipan, most of them remain on-island, according to the EEOC, which claimed that the workers suffered financial hardships and emotional damages.

“While EEOC would have preferred to seek the minimum amount of compensatory damages which in this case is $200,000 per charging party, the reality of the situation dictates otherwise. Sako has ceased operations,” the commission said.

The EEOC obtained a default judgment against Sako, which filed no answer or responsive pleading to the complaint. It said that the company’s former attorney, Michael Dotts, acknowledged receipt of the complaint last Oct. 1. The court declared Sako in default last Jan. 10.

Dotts’ law firm had also sued Sako at the CNMI Superior Court sometime last month to collect on unpaid legal services amounting to more than $17,618.40. The law firm alleged that Sako still has a remaining balance of more than $5,200 in connection with a $60,000-promissory note that the garment firm had issued as payment for legal services.

The Attorney General’s Office has lodged multiple criminal charges against Sako Corp. and two of its officers for allegedly evading the payment of taxes on several occasions, which totaled some $1.3 million. Eighteen counts of willful failure to pay tax were filed against the company, Hee Kun Kyun and Hyung Ki Min, records at the Superior Court showed.

Assistant attorney general Kevin Lynch charged the company and the two officers, alleging that they deliberately failed to account for and pay taxes as required by the CNMI Tax Code. Lynch said that the company and the two officers committed the offenses on several taxable quarters beginning on July 31, 2002 until Jan. 30, 2005.