Rowina Ogo: I did not make donation listed in Torres-Sablan finance report

Rowina Ogo, the former sister in law of Ralph Torres, said she reviewed the Torres-Sablan 2022 gubernatorial amended final campaign finance report and noticed a false entry, which states she donated $800 to an August 2022 fundraiser.

“I have no knowledge of donating such,” Ms. Ogo told Kandit.

The time period also coincides with a public dispute between Ms. Ogo and Mr. Torres’ administration and campaign officials. During the election campaign period, Ms. Ogo took to social media and accused “giants and elves” within the Torres administration of causing the corruption for which her former brother in law was being blamed by the legislature and the public.

The controversy fomented through the summer and into the final weeks of the election, culminating in an October 28, 2022 livecast from Ms. Ogo’s Facebook page, where she claimed, among other things, that high level administration officials had stolen public property and were going to work high on drugs.

As Kandit has previously reported, former Guam Senator Wil Castro instructed the Bank of Saipan to hold a payment to Rowina Ogo just 18 minutes after she began her October 28 tell-all about the corruption of “giants and elves.”

Mr. Castro was Mr. Torres’s chief of staff. Ms. Ogo is divorced from the governor’s brother, Vincent Torres.

According to documents subpoenaed by the former joint BOOST investigative committee of the CNMI House of Representatives, Ms. Ogo had applied for funding through the grant program. The joint committee was investigating whether the Torres administration had used the program as a political tool and weapon. It was federally funded.

Mr. Castro was subpoenaed to appear before the committee in December, and spent the day answering questions and clarifying text messages he had sent to Bank of Saipan officials.

Among those text messages was a 2:18 pm October 28 instruction to Karen Kent of Bank of Saipan that reads:

“IMPORTANT HOLD ROWENA OGO CHECK”

He sent that message as Ms. Ogo was several minutes in to her public testimonial about her knowledge of corruption in the Torres administration.

Ms. Ogo today said it would make no sense for her to have donated money at the time.

Campaign finance reports are supposed to be truthful accounts of the people and businesses who donate to campaigns or are paid by campaigns, and the amounts of money donated and paid.