United States v. Montgomery

I. Factual Background

Bert Montgomery was involved in a complex fraud scheme that led to the temporary closing of the Bank of Saipan and 10432 UNITED STATES v. MONTGOMERY millions of dollars of loss. Montgomery, along with his busi- ness partner DuSean Berkich, endeavored to purchase a con- trolling interest in the Bank of Saipan. To accomplish this, they convinced Tomas Aldan, the CEO and Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Saipan, to serve as their “inside man” by promising him lucrative benefits and kickbacks. The three then attempted, by various fraudulent means, to acquire Bank of Saipan stock. Montgomery’s fraud resulted in a loss of over five million dollars to the Bank of Saipan. As a result of the fraud, the Bank of Saipan was temporarily closed and was placed in receivership, a scandal that was highly publicized in Saipan. As Montgomery acknowledges in his brief, the actions of Montgomery and his co-conspirators are alleged to have disrupted “banking and business operations in the Com- monwealth . . . and the region in general.”

On June 20, 2003, a jury convicted Montgomery of: three counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud; one count of…