Courthouse Facing Foreclosure? Option Being Considered As Judicial Building Loan In CNMI Falls Into Default

From somewhere way out in the western Pacific Ocean (I think?), in the village of Capital Hill, on the island of Saipan in the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), the Saipan Tribune reports:

• The board of trustees of the NMI Retirement Fund directed on Friday its administrator, Richard Villagomez, to discuss and clarify once and for all issues about the judicial building loan with the Fitial administration before the board starts deliberating on the foreclosure option, which will be the board's last resort to collect its investment.



• Fund chair Sixto Igisomar made this clear during the board meeting Friday after learning that the government/judiciary has not been remitting payment pursuant to the loan agreement for 10 months now. Villagomez reported that the outstanding arrears from the agency is approximately $1.2 million as of Nov. 30 this year, or an expected monthly remittance of $120,000.

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• The foreclosure option came into the discussion when the board attorney, Carolyn Kern, said that in usual cases of delinquent loans, the board's ultimate step to collect is through their collaterals or through foreclosure.



• It was the Judicial Building Financing Act of 1994 that allowed the CNMI government to secure a loan from the NMI Retirement Fund in order to build the Guma Hustisia, which has a maturity date of Aug. 14, 2015.



• The construction of the Judicial Complex began in 1995. It was completed in May 1998. The revenues generated by the Judiciary was the primary source of repayment of the loan.

For more, see Fund: Judicial building loan arrears at $1.2M.