{"id":289758,"date":"2018-12-05T06:06:20","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T20:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=289758"},"modified":"2018-12-05T06:06:20","modified_gmt":"2018-12-04T20:06:20","slug":"cab-driver-with-fake-license-pleads-guilty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/cab-driver-with-fake-license-pleads-guilty\/","title":{"rendered":"Cab driver with fake license pleads guilty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A cab driver who later admitted being an overstaying tourist and was found with a fake CNMI driver\u2019s license, pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court. <\/p>\n<p>Cong Chen, 28, a Chinese national, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting fraud as part of a plea deal.<\/p>\n<p>The offense carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, $250,000 fine, and a $100 special assessment fee.<\/p>\n<p>When Saipan Tribune left the courtroom yesterday at 3:15pm, U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona was still conducting the change of plea hearing.<\/p>\n<p>Defense counsel Benjamin Petersburg is the court-appointed counsel for Chen. Assistant U.S. attorney Garth Backe appeared as counsel for the U.S. government.<\/p>\n<p>Chen, through an interpreter, said he came to Saipan as a tourist in April 2017 and extended his stay. He said he paid $1,200 to get a CNMI driver\u2019s license in order to drive a taxi.<\/p>\n<p>Assistant U.S. attorney Eric O\u2019Malley said that a Federal Protective Service inspector saw Chen at the Horiguchi Building in Garapan, who was illegally parked last Wednesday, Nov. 28.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Malley said that when the inspector confronted Chen, the defendant presented what appeared to be a fake CNMI driver\u2019s license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A cab driver who later admitted being an overstaying tourist and was found with a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6831,26,23384,3936],"class_list":["post-289758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-benjamin-petersburg","tag-cnmi","tag-cong-chen","tag-garth-backe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289758","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=289758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289758\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}