After about seven and a half hours of combing through the office of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres last Thursday, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ended their search in the afternoon.<\/p>\n
And with the lack of FBI statements that is typical of ongoing investigations, it was not immediately confirmed if the search, as authorized by several warrants, included any interrogations.<\/p>\n
Torres\u2019 chief of staff, Angel Demapan, who is also the acting press secretary, told\u00a0Saipan Tribune\u00a0over the weekend that the FBI\u2019s search ended at about 4:30pm last Thursday. The FBI agents reportedly appeared at Torres\u2019 office as early as 9am that day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe execution of the search warrant at the Office of the Governor was concluded at the close of business, or approximately 4:30pm on Thursday, at which time the bureau turned over the premises back to the [Torres] administration,\u201d Demapan told\u00a0Saipan Tribune. \u201cTo my knowledge, I\u2019m not aware of any interviews that may or may not have been conducted.\u201d <\/p>\n
Demapan also denied rumors that Torres had left the island.<\/p>\n
Agents of the FBI fanned out across Saipan last Thursday to execute several search warrants that included the Governor\u2019s Office, the office of Alfred Yue of Marianas Consultancy Services LLC, a consultant for Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC; Legend Realty Saipan; and the Torres Brothers\u2019 law office. Even Torres\u2019 home and vehicle were reportedly searched.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have provided them with all the information and access that they have asked for, with the intent of being completely transparent and helpful in the investigation,\u201d Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios noted in a press conference Thursday afternoon, during which he affirmed that the FBI was searching Torres\u2019 office but did not specify the reason.<\/p>\n
An IPI statement released late Thursday said: \u201cFirst, our companies have nothing to hide and will cooperate with law enforcement authorities. Secondly, we want assure the people of the CNMI that we continue to be law abiding and good corporate citizens who are proud and privileged to be members of the CNMI. Finally, we want assure our employees, their families, vendors, patrons, and residents alike that our companies are intent on succeeding and making the CNMI the jewel of the Pacific for our emerging gaming industry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After about seven and a half hours of combing through the office of Gov. Ralph…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[178],"class_list":["post-311825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-fbi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311825","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311825\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}