The Office of the Attorney General has officially filed a contempt charge against Shayne Blanco Villanueva in Superior Court for refusing to answer questions during a legislative investigation on the previous administration’s Building Optimism, Opportunity, and Stability Together grant program.
Villanueva was booked Friday at the Department of Corrections after he self-surrendered to the police and was able to immediately post bail.
After posting a $1000 bail, pursuant to an arrest warrant dated March 11, Villanueva was spotted leaving DOC with his lawyer, Keith Chambers.
Saipan Tribune learned that the Superior Court issued an arrest warrant for Villanueva back on March 11 pursuant to one count of contempt charge, but he was off island at the time.
Upon learning of the warrant and charge filed against him, Villanueva agreed to turn himself in to the police upon his return.
According to the declaration of probable cause in support of the issuance of an arrest warrant on March 8, House Speaker Edmund Villagomez (Ind-Saipan) transmitted a signed certification statement of contempt for Villanueva to Attorney General Edward Manibusan.
On the same day, Manibusan referred the case to the White-Collar Crimes Task Force composed of the Office of the Public Auditor, the OAG, and the Department of Public Safety.
In this screengrab taken from a YouTube video, Shayne Villanueva takes his oath before the House of Representatives Committee on Federal Assistance and Disaster-related Funding that is investigating the previous administration’s grant program, in the House chamber yesterday morning. Behind Villanueva is his counsel, Keith Chambers. The committee found Villanueva in contempt for invoking his Fifth Amendment right and refusing to answer any questions from the committee.
FERDIE DE LA TORRE
The declaration alleged that on March 5, during the House of Representatives’ Special Committee on Federal Assistance and Disaster-Related Funding investigative meeting pursuant to the subpoena issued to Roil Soil Marketing’s Villanueva, Villanueva failed to answer questions posed by the Rep. Blas Jonathan “BJ” Attao (Ind-Saipan).
After refusing to answer questions, committee vice chair Rep. Edwin K. Propst (D-Saipan) and chair Rep. Ralph N. Yumul (Ind-Saipan) advised Villanueva that his failure to respond to the questions would subject him to contempt of the Legislature and prosecution by the attorney general.
Specifically, in response to the first question from Attao, which was, “Can you please tell us a little bit about your postsecondary educational background?” Villanueva reportedly replied with the phrase, “on the advice of my counsel, I respectfully invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege, therefore I respectfully decline to answer your question at this time.”
The probable cause document states that “Villanueva used that phrase eight times, refusing to answer the question about postsecondary education asking for confirmation that Villanueva would be refusing to answer any of the questions.
After being admonished, he was again asked, “Do you have a degree or any certification in marketing or advertising?” Villanueva allegedly refused to answer.
Attao again asked, “Please share with us your professional credentials,” but Villanueva refused to answer.
Attao then asked, “What is Roil Soil and where is it physically located?” Villanueva also refused to testify.
Propst asked, “Are you unwilling to answer any of our questions that we are going to ask you from this point forward?” to which Villanueva replied, “I respectfully invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege, therefore I respectfully decline to answer your question.”
