What's In A Name?

Today's Variety has a small article about medical referral at CHC. I read it, and saw the photo of the "manager for medical referral services" that accompanied it. Ronald D. Sablan.

Ronald D. Sablan? Have we forgotten?

Photo from Marianas Variety

This is the same man who borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars from EDLF/CDA for the Pacific Gardenia and never paid it back. Never even tried to pay it back. By the time CDA got a judgment, the total, with interest and late charges, was $2.4 million owed by Ron D. Sablan!

At the time that CDA sued in 2004, they alleged a scheme of deception and mismanagement, all for the purpose of enriching Ron D. Sablan.

As of last Jan. 20, Sy's Corporation and its officers Ronald, Maria Ana, and Jeannette Sablan owe CDA over $2.4 million, and are more than five years delinquent in their payment, according to CDA's legal counsel.

“CDA's rights and interests.will be irreparably injured unless a receiver [or trustee] is appointed to take charge of the business affairs of Sy's [Corporation] and to take possession of its property until a final decision or order from this court is issued following foreclosure, selling the assets or otherwise disposing of this action,” attorney F. Matthew Smith said.

Court records showed that Jeannette Sablan-the sister of hotel general manager Ronald Sablan-has already agreed to the proposed appointment of a trustee on June 17.

In the motion he filed last week, Smith claimed that spouses Ronald and Maria Ann Sablan have been mismanaging the assets of Pacific Gardenia Hotel and Sunset Bar and Grill.

CDA, Smith said, has been informed that the Sablans are maintaining separate sets of accounting books and had presented fictitious books to CDA in the past. Sy's Corporation is reportedly operating without a CNMI business license due to unpaid taxes, and owes employees over $100,000 in back wages. Further, all checks payable to Sy's Corporation are being diverted and deposited directly into the personal accounts of the Sablan couple, Smith said.

Even his sister claimed he fraudulently mismanaged the corporation that ran the Pacific Gardenia. Her attorney, Bob O'Connor, also spoke on the matter.

“The obvious purpose in filing the petition [for bankruptcy] was to avoid the receivership and to allow Ronald Sablan to continue to siphon into his own pocket all of Sy's Corp's hotel and restaurant revenues,” O'Connor said.

And when Ron D. Sablan filed for bankruptcy, he conveniently omitted another mortgage debt. Attorney Bruce Mailman represented that creditor.

LPP lawyer Bruce Mailman accused Sablan and his wife of fraud, in connection with their filing of a bankruptcy petition in court in Nevada. In that petition, Mailman said the Sablans made no mention of its debt from LPP regarding defaulted loans originally obtained from the company's predecessor-in-interest, the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Ron D. Sablan not only cheated EDLF/CDA and his creditors, he also faced numerous complaints for cheating his foreign contract workers, failing to pay them.

According to attorney F. Matt Smith, Ron D. Sablan was to blame for this problem, as well:

Smith further maintained that the payment of back wages allegedly owed the former hotel employees was not the problem of the hotel's new receiver, but of Sablan.

“It is not the receiver’s responsibility to pay old back wages that cannot be verified and that were not accrued under his watch,” Smith said. “The fact is that since the receiver took over, Pacific Gardenia employees are finally getting regular pay checks."

He noted that Sablan negotiated the back wages with the Department of Labor and the involved workers without court approval and without guaranty that the amounts negotiated were accurate or in order.

“This is a Ron Sablan problem and not a receiver problem,” said Smith.

Ron D. Sablan resigned his position as chairman of HANMI (the hotel association). He filed for bankruptcy. And he appealed the judgment against him!

It took years to finally resolve the appeal; and finally Ron D. Sablan decided he could dismiss the appeal and let CDA have the properties it had foreclosed to try to recoup some of the money owed. But of course, by then, it became impossible for CDA to find any investor who wanted the Pacific Gardenia building and could pay a reasonable price for it.

The Pacific Gardenia building sits as an empty eyesore (one of many) on Beach Road in Chalan Kanoa.


And Ron D. Sablan, who has NOTHING to recommend him as a manager (and NO EXPERIENCE in the medical field, either, that I can find a trace of)--Ron D. Sablan, who in fact has A LOT to recommend against him ever holding any position of responsibility again--is now managing the CHC office for medical referral services?

I'm outraged.

I'm also wondering if he weren't a Sablan, would he have gotten this job?

I'm also wondering what date he was hired. And if there is any coincidental relationship between his being hired and Kilili's decision that we need to delay implementation of U.S. immigration here.
UPDATE: Apparently no connection here. Ron Sablan apparently was hired 2 years ago, before P.L. 110-229, the law for federalization of our immigration and creation of the delegate position.

And even if there is no connection, nothing worse than just an out-and-out hire of him, it still makes me angry.