Ex-Speaker’s arraignment on theft charges set today

The Superior Court scheduled the arraignment of former House Speaker Oscar C. Rasa and his wife Patricia today, in connection with allegations that they defrauded an 82-year-old businessman to obtain numerous loans by representing that they would receive over $1 million in land compensation claim from the government.

The court set the arraignment at the courtroom of presiding judge Robert Naraja this morning.

No criminal information formally charging the Rasas has been filed with the Superior Court as of press time, but the Attorney General’s Office indicated that it could file at least 82 counts of theft by deception or unlawful taking against the defendants before the scheduled arraignment.

The Rasas are currently out on bail, after Gov. Juan N. Babauta posted $3,000-bonds for each of them. Before their temporary release, police arrested the Rasas at the Aqua Resort Club three days before Christmas pursuant to arrest warrants issued by Superior Court judge Ramona Manglona.

The AG’s Investigative Unit requested for the arrest warrants, accusing the Rasas of committing theft by deception.

The AGIU accused the Rasas of carrying out a loan scheme that deceived businessman Richard Szumiel of their repayment capability by misrepresenting that they would receive over $1 million from the government’s land compensation fund.

Verification made by the AGIU revealed that the Rasas do not have any pending land compensation claim before the Marianas Public Lands Authority. The AGIU said that ownership of the land the Rasas were claiming to receive compensation for had been transferred to another person long before their transactions with Szumiel.

Szumiel issued to the Rasas 28 checks totaling $72,000 from December 2003 to June 2004, and some $7,500 in cash. The former lawmaker endorsed one check in the amount of $2,800, while his wife endorsed almost all the checks issued by Szumiel.

According to the AGIU, the Rasas managed to win the trust of Szumiel after the couple helped facilitate the cancellation of his adopted son’s farm plot revocation. Before this, the Rasas frequently visited one of Szumiel’s tenants. After helping Szumiel’s adopted son, the Rasas began asking him for loans, making promises of repayment as soon as the government pays their purported land compensation claim.

Szumiel began doubting the Rasas repayment capability when the former lawmaker failed to show up at their agreed place in June 2004, after the latter promised to make some payment. He started making verifications with the MPLA, which informed him that the Rasas did not have any land compensation claim. Szumiel claimed that the Rasas began avoiding him since then. (John Ravelo)