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Le acquitted of bank rob charges
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Posted on Aug 19 2005
After being arrested and extradited from Vietnam to Saipan, Vann Le, the ex-Saipan businessman who was tagged as the mastermind in the first and only bank robbery on the island, is now a free man.
The U.S. District Court yesterday acquitted Le on all three charges: Hobbs Act robbery conspiracy, Hobbs Act robbery and using and carrying a firearm during crime of violence.
The court acquitted Le after a jury returned with “not guilty” verdicts on all charges against him. The jury began deliberations Thursday afternoon. Le’s trial took only three days beginning Tuesday.
The jury found the evidence insufficient to find Le “guilty beyond reasonable doubt,” even though his co-defendants, Norman Kapileo and Lionel Borja, tagged the businessman as the mastermind in the bank robbery.
Kapileo and Borja went to the City Trust bank in Gualo Rai on April 12, 2002 and robbed the bank of some $8,649. Before the duo fled the scene with stolen money, Kapileo fired his gun.
Local and federal authorities announced solving the bank robbery case in February 2003, charging the three defendants in court. At that time, the FBI took custody of Kapileo and Borja, while Le remained at large.
Soon after that, Le, a former Saipan businessman who owned a watersports company, went to Vietnam and put up a telephone and telecommunications equipment firm in the Asian country.
Le first appeared in court in October last year after being extradited by authorities in Vietnam, where he was arrested.
The court had already sentenced Kapileo to 15 years and 10 months imprisonment, after the defendant pleaded guilty to conspiring to rob the bank and another charge of using and carrying a gun during the robbery. Borja had also owned up to some of the charges in a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The court had also sentenced a certain Jason Ruluked to 33 months imprisonment for obstructing the probe on the bank robbery and making false statements to federal agents.
The first ever bank robbery in the CNMI transpired in April 2002. (John Ravelo)
