By Steve Limtiaco • Pacific Daily News • August 20, 2010

http://www.guampdn.com/article/20100820/NEWS01/8200335

Federal prosecutors this week filed a criminal complaint, alleging defense attorney Danilo Aguilar committed money laundering after he spent money from a cashier's check he allegedly knew was a fake.

Aguilar, who practices law in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam, also has worked as an assistant attorney general and government labor attorney in the CNMI.

According to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in the Saipan federal court, the allegations stem from a $298,960 Citibank cashier's check Aguilar received in the mail.

Aguilar had an employee deposit the check in his law office's account at the Bank of Guam's Upper Tumon branch on March 13, the complaint states. It cleared on March 31, and the cash was released to the account, the complaint states.

Aguilar's employee allegedly withdrew the cash from the account on April 1 -- including a $236,766 cashier's check and $55,792 in cash. The $236,766 cashier's check was deposited to the law firm's account at First Hawaiian Bank.

More than a month later, on May 14, the Federal Reserve Bank returned the $298,960 cashier's check because of a bad routing number, and Citibank confirmed the check was a fake, the complaint states.

The routing number is a nine-digit number at the bottom of the check, used to identify the financial institution against which the check is drawn.

According to an affidavit by IRS special agent Shaun Morita, Aguilar had an employee withdraw cash from his bank account after he was told the cashier's check was fake.

The Bank of Guam contacted Aguilar about the fraudulent check May 14, the affidavit states, and Aguilar allegedly directed an employee to withdraw $100,000 from the First Hawaiian Bank account the same day, then $84,947.49 the next day. The money was withdrawn from the bank's Saipan branch.

"He explained that he panicked once Bank of Guam froze his bank accounts and immediately began withdrawing funds from (the) First Hawaiian Bank account ... to cover business and personal expenses," the affidavit states. "Aguilar admitted he knew it was wrong by not returning the funds as requested by Bank of Guam but he was not thinking properly at the time."