SHAWN N. ANDERSON, United States Attorney for the Districts of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, announced that defendant Mylene Basco Casupanan, age 42, from the Republic of the Philippines was sentenced in the United States District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands to 18 months imprisonment for Conspiracy to Defraud the Unites States in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. The Court also ordered 2 years of supervised release following imprisonment, 40 hours of community service, and a mandatory $100.00 special assessment fee.
In January of 2019, Casupanan along with Alejandro Tumandao Nario created A&A Enterprises, a manpower agency business incorporated on the island of Saipan in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Nario, president of the company, and Casupanan, the accountant and business manager, operated this business which profited from the submission of more than 100 fraudulent CNMI-Only Transitional Worker (CW-1) visas.
As part of the scheme, Casupanan recruited foreign workers from the Philippines and in the CNMI, and then forged documentation for submission with their CW-1 applications. Rather than provide full-time employment to these foreign workers as required under the CW-1 program, Casupanan and Nario demanded the foreign workers find their own employment in Saipan and then pay A&A Enterprises a biweekly tax of $194.
Nario was previously sentenced on February 4, 2022, to serve 21 months of incarceration in a federal prison.
“Casupanan is the final defendant to be held accountable in this complex investigation and prosecution,” stated United States Attorney Anderson. “Our office is actively targeting this activity in the CNMI. We will continue to bring those who abuse the CW-1 program to justice.”
“A&A Enterprises went through great lengths to defraud the United States Government and potential beneficiaries of the CW-1 visa program,” says HSI Honolulu Special Agent in Charge John F. Tobon. “Let this be a clear message that there will be serious consequences for those who exploit our immigration system by engaging in these elaborate fraud schemes.”
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and prosecuted by Albert S. Flores, Jr., Assistant United States Attorney in the District of the Northern Mariana Islands.
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