{"id":239176,"date":"2016-10-26T06:06:38","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T20:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=239176"},"modified":"2016-10-26T06:06:38","modified_gmt":"2016-10-25T20:06:38","slug":"marshals-seize-mv-luta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/marshals-seize-mv-luta\/","title":{"rendered":"Marshals seize M\/V Luta"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-239176 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/marshals-seize-mv-luta\/yamamoto-pix1\/'>yamamoto-pix1<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-239182'>\n\t\t\t\tA small boat, carrying three U.S. deputy marshals  and attorney George Lloyd Hasselback, leaves controversial M\/V Luta in the channel near Smiling Cove Marina and the Port of Saipan after the marshals seized the cargo ship yesterday following a lawsuit filed by a Japanese investor against Lt. Gov. Victor Hocog and several other persons. (Ferdie de la Torre)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/marshals-seize-mv-luta\/yamamoto-pix2\/'>yamamoto-pix2<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-239183'>\n\t\t\t\tAttorney George Lloyd Hasselback, counsel for Japanese investor Takahisa Yamamoto, and three U.S. deputy marshals arrive at the Smiling Cove yesterday afternoon after they served a federal court\u2019s order to seize M\/V Luta. (Ferdie de la Torre)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>The U.S. Marshals Service seized yesterday afternoon the controversial cargo ship M\/V Luta after Japanese investor Takahisa Yamamoto filed a lawsuit in federal court against Lt. Gov. Victor Hocog and some owners of the ship for allegedly refusing to pay back the $3.4 million he put up for the vessel.<\/p>\n<p>Three deputy marshals, accompanied by Yamamoto counsel George Lloyd Hasselback, boarded a small boat to serve the arrest order on a crewman of M\/V Luta, which was anchored in the channel near Smiling Cove Marina and Port of Saipan. <\/p>\n<p>After Yamamoto filed the lawsuit yesterday, U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona directed the U.S. Marshals Service to \u201carrest\u201d the 146.5-by-38-foot 237 gross ton M\/V Luta.<\/p>\n<p>Manglona also commanded the U.S. Marshal Service to \u201carrest\u201d the ship\u2019s engines, furniture, tackle, appurtenances, and other necessaries.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from Hocog, Yamamoto is also suing M\/V Luta, Luta Mermaid LLC, Abelina T. Mendiola, Deron T. Mendiola, Fidel S. Mendiola III, Fidel Mendiola Jr., and Robert Toelkes.<\/p>\n<p>Yamamoto, through Hasselback, is suing them for breach of contract, fraud, and unjust enrichment. <\/p>\n<p>Yamamoto asked the court that the vessel be condemned and sold to pay his demands, including interest and costs.<\/p>\n<p>Yamamoto is also demanding attorney\u2019s fees, expenses, and court costs.<\/p>\n<p>The plaintiff asked the court to order defendants provide a complete and accurate accounting of the disposition of any and all funds he contributed to them for the purchase and operation of M\/V Luta.<\/p>\n<p>Luta Mermaid LLC owns M\/V Luta.<\/p>\n<p>According to Hasselback in the lawsuit, Abelina Mendiola, Deron Mendiola, and Fidel Mendiola III are managers\/shareholders of Luta Mermaid.<\/p>\n<p>Hasselback said that beginning in 2013, Yamamoto began to visit Rota as a tourist and that over the course of several trips, he began to grow very fond of the island.<\/p>\n<p>Hasselback said that sometime in 2013, certain defendants approached Yamamoto about funding the purchase and operation of a commercial shipping vessel to be used to service Rota.<\/p>\n<p>Hasselback said that in January 2014, Yamamoto first funded the business by providing $700,000 to Kizuna Marine Inc., an entity under the control of the defendants.<\/p>\n<p>Certain defendants then told Yamamoto that another company, Luta Mermaid LLC, had to be formed to purchase the vessel.<\/p>\n<p>In June 2014, Yamamoto advanced another $600,000 to the Luta Mermaid LLC, Hasselback said.<\/p>\n<p>Yamamoto then loaned Luta Mermaid an additional $682,000 and advanced another $690,000 to the company, Hasselback said.<\/p>\n<p>In January 2016, Yamamoto transferred another $109,000 to Luta Mermaid.<\/p>\n<p>Hasselback said certain defendants asked Yamamoto again for more money last May, but he declined to give any more.<\/p>\n<p>The lawyer said to date, M\/V Luta has not been operated in a commercially reasonable manner in order to maximize the potential for commercial gain in order to reimburse Yamamoto for his contributions to the purchase, outfitting and operation of the ship.<\/p>\n<p>Hasselback said the defendants have not reasonably maintained the ship and have not paid the wages of the sailors assigned to the vessel.<\/p>\n<p>Hasselback said of the $3,414,000 in advances and\/or loans that Yamamoto contributed, approximately $1,982,000 was provided to the ship for necessaries.<\/p>\n<p>Last May, former Department of Public Lands secretary John DelRosario filed a taxpayer\u2019s lawsuit against Hocog and Finance Secretary Larrisa Larson over the alleged adoption of a Rota Legislative Delegation Resolution 19-3 without public notice that purportedly authorized payment of $400,000 to Luta Mermaid, a private company owned by Hocog\u2019s relatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Marshals Service seized yesterday afternoon the controversial cargo ship M\/V Luta after Japanese&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":239182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[259,11454,4735,11522],"class_list":["post-239176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-lawsuit","tag-luta-mermaid","tag-marshals-service","tag-robert-toelkes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}