[Editor’s note: Having weighed the consequences, Kandit has decided to not reveal the name of the federal drug defendant whose unsealed case and interview with Kandit provides confirmation of the FBI investigation and the pending U.S. Attorney’s case against Charissa Tenorio. For his safety against reprisal, we identified the federal defendant as “Joe Cruz.” We will neither provide the case number, the date the case was filed, nor other information “Mr. Cruz” provided to Kandit that will tend to identify him.]
When a federal drug defendant decides to cooperate against other targets of federal investigations, those targets almost always are other drug dealers. The cooperating drug dealer’s case gets sealed up. His trial date gets continued every three months, and for however long it takes for that defendant to work cases with the Drug Enforcement Agency, Homeland Security Investigations, or the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Sometimes the federal government will involve the Treasury Department, or the Internal Revenue Service, depending on the financial aspects of the crimes. Rarely is the Federal Bureau of Investigation involved.
And in the seven years Kandit has monitored the movement of federal court cases and their associated documents in Guam, only two drug investigations have ever involved the FBI in a pronounced way: the Boom Mantanona case, and the investigations involving the cases of Brenda Kinian and her association with former Yona Mayor Jesse Blas. The FBI’s involvement in those cases had nothing to do with the drugs, and everything to do with police and public corruption.
Nothing appeared out of the ordinary as Kandit began to review the unsealed court documents in a federal drug case against “Joe Cruz.” Mr. Cruz, according to the case files, was charged with an information following a raid, where federal law enforcement found a lot of cash, a lot of meth, and unregistered guns. The fact that he was charged with an information and not an indictment, and that his case was sealed immediately is an indication that Mr. Cruz began to cooperate with the federal government shortly after the raid happened.
In fact, his plea agreement – also unsealed – verifies this.
Charissa Tenorio
Facing considerable prison time, Mr. Cruz accepted guilt and agreed to cooperate with the Feds, but according to a review of the documents beyond the every-three-months continuances, his cooperation was unusual. It wasn’t against drug dealers; he cooperated against Lieutenant Governor Joshua Tenorio’s sister, Charissa Tenorio.
Following years of standard continuance motions, in May of 2024, the U.S. Attorney made the following revelation to the court under seal:
“The Defendant is involved in a complex criminal investigation.”
That statement alone raised our eyebrows, as we have not seen the U.S. Attorney’s prior use of the adverb “complex” to describe one of its criminal investigations.
According to legal analysts, a “complex criminal investigation” typically involves multiple defendants or targets, numerous charges, extensive evidence, long time frame, cross-jurisdictional elements, and the need for specialized knowledge. The Bernie Madoff case is an example of a complex criminal investigation.
Then there is the next sentence in the May 2024 continuance motion:
“The investigation is currently being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (“FBI”), which is active and ongoing, however not completed. The FBI expects that the investigation is likely to be completed within four to five months. The FBI plans to convene a federal grand jury in September of 2024.”
Judges normally continue proceedings in federal cases for no longer than three months. This was true in the “Cruz” case as well, setting the following hearing for August 15, 2024.
On August 14, the U.S. Attorney filed an unopposed continuance motion to push the Cruz case back even further, and to keep the whole affair sealed from public view, at least for three more months.
Aside from the previous information about the FBI investigation, the U.S. Attorney dropped this bombshell of information, under seal:
“The information provided by the defendant was utilized to obtain Search Warrants, MJ24-00095 and MJ24-00096.”
Those search warrants were issued and filed on the federal court archive online site on August 12, 2024. Those search warrant numbers also match the numbers physically seen by a trusted Kandit source, who inspected the two search warrants the FBI used to raid Charissa Tenorio and a company associated with her on August 19, 2024.
Both those warrants remain sealed. The source was shown the warrants by Ms. Tenorio herself, on the afternoon of the raids.
Not only that, Mr. Cruz confirmed with Kandit Thursday that the target of his FBI cooperation was Ms. Tenorio.
“It was about PUA,” Mr. Cruz confirmed.
PUA stands for Pandemic Unemployment Aid, a federally funded unemployment assistance program during the pandemic.
Multiple witnesses and victims have said they have been interviewed by the FBI since August last year about an alleged multimillion dollar conspiracy involving Ms. Tenorio and Lieutenant Governor Tenorio’s boyfriend Matthew Topasna. The common thread among the witnesses and victims is that Ms. Tenorio used companies associated with herself and Mr. Topasna to orchestrate hundreds of false PUA claims for which she allegedly pocketed a significant sum.
In March, two former associates of Ms. Tenorio agreed to be interviewed and voice recorded so long as Kandit would modulate their voices beyond recognition to protect their safety and their livelihoods from reprisal. The associates – both claiming to be victims of Ms. Tenorio’s alleged crimes – said the criminal conspiracy went beyond PUA fraud and the associated offenses of money laundering, wire fraud, and bank fraud. The two, whom we named “Pat” and “Tyler,” claimed Ms. Tenorio conspired with bankers and others to steal identities, make false claims to banks, and to pocket the proceeds of personal loans and credit card purchases.
Pat also alleged Ms. Tenorio conspired with a now-deceased government administrator to defraud the federally funded Emergency Rental Assistance program. Pat further alleged Ms. Tenorio conspired with government officials at the seaport, the Department of Public Works, and the Guam Department of Education to fix contracts and to hire people outside the legal process.
Kandit has attempted to retrieve public records from officials at two of these agencies. The DPW officials provided a partial response weeks after the disclosure deadline. One seaport official never replied to our Freedom of Information Act demand for public records in her possession. The other said she would not comply. Kandit is exploring legal options to compel disclosure.
Attorney General Douglas Moylan said he will not comment, when asked earlier this year whether his office is investigating Ms. Tenorio. The U.S. Attorney’s Office also will not confirm or deny the existence of their investigation.
