Subpoenas for advertising records to be issued to 3 Saipan media companies

The CNMI legislative corruption investigation committee voted unanimously to subpoena financial records from three Saipan news outlets: The Marianas Variety, Saipan Tribune, and KKMP.

The panel, which is investigating former Governor Ralph Torres’ abuse of federal funds, decided last Thursday to look into whether the records these media companies have match records the Bank of Saipan submitted to the committee relative to the use of federal funds to advertise the Building Optimism, Opportunities, and Stability Together (BOOST) program. The Bank of Saipan was the administrator of the BOOST program.

The inquiry into these records was prompted by the discovery of invoices by Roil Soil Corporation and Nonstop Corporation – vendors of the BOOST program – showing at least tens of thousands of dollars in advertising purchases to each of the named media companies. The purchases were recorded as BOOST advertising, which meant the Torres administration via Roil Soil and Nonstop spent sums likely in six digits to advertise the giveaway of money.

The media companies, during the period they allegedly were paid advertising dollars for the BOOST program, also provided editorial support for the program. Two of them began to publish stories critical of the program, but only after an investigative committee led by Celina Babauta and Donald Manglona began to reveal evidence of corruption in the program.

The day after the current investigative committee voted to issue the subpoenas, the editor of the Marianas Variety published an editorial mocking the committee and urging legislators to move past the former governor’s use of federal funds.