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BoS sues Salas, Brown
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Posted on Jun 01 2005
The Bank of Saipan yesterday sued Commerce Secretary Andrew Salas and Attorney General Pamela Brown to force them to produce documents that were asked through the Open Government Act.
The bank’s board of directors alleged that the officials unlawfully denied its request for documents other than those submitted at the Superior Court in connection with the receivership proceedings.
It asked the court to compel the officials to produce the documents and assess against them costs incidental to the lawsuit. The bank sued the Salas and Brown in their official capacities.
In a complaint filed at the Superior Court, bank attorney Randall Todd Thompson disclosed that BoS made an Open Government Act request for documents last April 15. The request sought copies of documents in government custody within 10 days.
The documents include those sent to or received from former BoS receiver Randall T. Fennell; the law firms of White Pierce Mailman & Nutting; Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt; Brian McMahon; Columbia Financial Advisors Inc.; Griffin & Co. Inc.; Oscar Camacho; and The Bank of Saipan Inc.
They also include documents concerning the May 22, 2002, letter of then acting Commerce Secretary Fermin Atalig concerning the receivership.
Salas and Brown, through assistant attorney general Kenneth E. Barden, denied the bank’s Open Government Act request on May 2, 2005.
“Mr. Barden claimed that the request was overbroad, that the records sought were ‘confidential’ as a matter of CNMI law,” Thompson said. “He alleged that all materials in the custody and possession of [Salas and Brown] were confidential and thus not open to access, inspection or copying without a court order, with the exception of audited financial statements, of which Mr. Barden claimed there were none.”
Barden said that violation of the confidentiality provision of the Open Government Act constitutes a misdemeanor that is punishable by a maximum fine of $50,000 or maximum imprisonment of one year.
Thompson branded the denial of the request as unjustified, which prompted the bank to seek judicial review of the officials’ decision.
