For over ten years I have been researching the culture of corruption in Washington. I’ve been writing about my research on Dkos since 2004. Jack Abramoff and his web of scandal were the story that became my core sample as I tapped into a glacier of Republican Corruption. This research revealed many creeps, scoundrels and villains. They all have decided that the "ends" always justify the means—no matter which laws are broken and how often they violate their purported "values". Every now and then, a character in the story crosses the line from corruption and criminality into an embrace of evil. These are the worst of the worst.
Tonight, one of these failed human beings is in Washington DC.
His name is Benigno R. (Ben) Fitial. Thanks to Abramoff, he is the Governor of the CNMI.
Can we arrest him now?
To the jump...
Benigno R. (Ben) Fitial is a Pirate. He is an old-school thieving, lying bastard. He is an architect of the system of human trafficking and abuse that has flourished on the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) for over 25 years. The sweatshops, forced prostitution, money laundering, gambling, graft, corruption and incompetence that have become synonymous with the rogue US Territory in the Western Pacific are all by-products of his criminal career.
He was there when the former Pacific Trust Territories was negotiating with the United States to become a US Territory.
After World War II most of these Pacific islands were under the control of the United States. By the late 1960s the United Nations was urging a resolution of political status for the sparsely populated and isolated islands of the Western Pacific.
The CNMI was the political center of the Trust Territories back in the 1960s (and also a CIA training station). Fitial was a news director at a local radio station and somehow he parlayed that experience to get a job as a Budget Analyst for the Trust Territories. By the 1970s the various island groups in the Trust Territories were voting in plebiscites to choose between independence or becoming a territory of another Nation. The Marinas Islands voted to become part of the United States while Gerald Ford was still President.
All that was left was to negotiate the terms of the relationship. And Fitial was at the table. He was a delegate to the First CNMI Constitutional Convention in 1976. When the first CNMI legislative body was formed (1978-1980), Fitial became their Chief Administrative Officer and Special Consultant to House Appropriations Committee. In the second CNMI Legislature he was a Member of the CNMI House of Representatives and served as a member of the Rules Committee, R&D Committee, and Minority Leader. By the 3rd CNMI Legislature, he was elected Speaker for the House. By the 4th CNMI Legislature he was in charge.
Meanwhile, the details of the agreement between the United States and the CNMI were still being hammered out. Back in the 1970s it was thought that this process would only take a few months or years. By the mid Eighties it was still being debated. Reagan appointed Fitial to Chair the Northern Mariana Islands Commission on Federal Laws in 1985-1988 that hammered out the final details on the agreement. It became know as the Covenant.
The Covenant provided temporary exemptions to US labor, immigration and custom laws. In theory, this was done to protect the Chamorros and Carolinians who made up the indigenous peoples of the CNMI. The hope was that local control would help these folks protect, maintain and preserve their cultures.
This has failed BIG TIME and has led to an influx of guest worker/immigrants who now outnumber the Chamorro/Carolinian populations almost 3 to 1. The labor system on the CNMI is a form a modern slavery that has harmed the guest workers and laid waste to the Chamorro/Carolinian culture in the process. It is a disaster, but some folks have gotten very rich and powerful as a result.
One of them is Benigno R. (Ben) Fitial. In addition to local control of labor, custom and immigration laws, the CNMI also was granted the right to ship goods to the mainland USA without a tariff. This was done to help boost a local economy.
Chinese entrepreneurs, like Willie Tan his Family, had a different idea. They saw the CNMI as a way to exploit a loophole, learn the global textile trade and ship their goods duty free to the States. In Fitial they found a willing partner to run the scam.
In his role as a CNMI Legislator, Fitial pushed through legislation to allow foreign investment on the CNMI and the importation of "guest workers" from the Pacific Rim to run their factories.
To get buy-in from the local Chamorro/Carolinian population, he made sure that even folks on food stamps could afford their very own Filipino maid. In no time at all, almost 70% of the indigenous population had their own live in maid—even if they were on the dole.
This system of abuse quickly got out of hand. The Reagan administration complained to the CNMI about the growing abuse as stories of rape, sweatshops and neo-slavery filtered back to Washington. Complaints were made, but nothing was done
When Reagan left elected office, so did Fitial.
He left the CNMI government and took a job with the Chinese Family that he had become—thanks to Fitial—modern feudal lords on the CNMI. For eleven years he worked for the Hong Kong based Tan Family. It was a lucrative payoff for Fitial and has earned him the local nickname of Ben-Tan. In addition to his day job, Fitial was also able to run strip joint and control a number of video poker machines as added perks. (Comparisons between the CNMI and HBO’s The Sorparnos are justified—it is Deadwood with snorkeling).
The work of Fitial to help the Tan Holding Companies run their sweatshops became so abusive that it was noticed by the George Bush the Elder. Back in 1992 his Department of Labor levied the single largest fine in US Labor Department history—$9.2 million—against the Tan Family. That was followed by other fines and condemnation.
By 1995 it looked like the US Congress was on the way to passing bi-partisan reform to close the loophole in the CNMI Covenant that was allowing the system of abuse to flourish. It was then, that the Pirates of Saipan hired Jack Abramoff to block any reform. Willie Tan of the Tan Family became Jack’s patron and Ben Fitial became the contact point between the two.
By 2000, the gang decided they needed to have their own man back in charge of the CNMI Government, so Fitial re-entered local politics. The first step was to get him "elected" Speaker of the CNMI House. He didn’t have the votes to win, but for Team Abramoff and their GOP partners in crime it was just a matter of finding out who they could bribe to fix the election.
Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff and the gang sent Ed Buckham and Mike Scanlon over to the Islands to promise two CNMI House members, Rep. Alejo M. Mendiola from Rota and Rep. Norman S. Palacios from Tinian a payoff (AKA a bribe) if they would switch their votes and elect Fitial Speaker of the House.
Mendiola and Palacios switched their votes. (And in typical corruptionist fashion, Fitial is still trading "bribes" for votes).
As promised, Tom, Jack and the GOP gang delivered the payoff (AKA a favor) in the form of appropriations from the US Congress. (These bribes should be a count in John Doolittle’s coming indictment).
Once in office, Fitial ensured that the CNMI Government rehired Abramoff as their lobbyist and that a power plant contract went to Enron as a payoff to Tom DeLay (and George W. Bush). It should be noted that the power plant was never built. The money sent to the CNMI by US taxpayers to build the plant was spent on "studies" and "litigation". These funds—like many other dollars the US sends to the CNMI—was lost through inept bookkeeping and/or outright thievery. Millions of dollars have gone "missing" while Fitial has been in power as Speaker of the House and/or Governor.
In 2001, the Abramoff/DeLay Criminal Conspiracy pulled out all the stops to help Fitial run for CNMI Governor. Efforts included US Congressmen running ads and writing testimonials to support Fitial’s campaign. These efforts included the Bush White House. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s 2006 investigation of Abramoff/White House contacts revealed a number of contacts between Team Abramoff and the White House as part of the effort to get Fitial elected. The effort just missed and for two years, Fitail "worked" in the private sector, running the Bank of Saipan into the ground and his "nightclubs" in the anything goes sections of Saipan’s red light district.
By 2003 Fitial was re-elected as Speaker of the CNMI House. In 2005 he became the CNMI’s Governor just as Federal investigators were paying more attention to his role in the Abramoff scandal. More details can be read here, here and here.
In February of 2007, the Marianas Variety reported:
FBI probes Abramoff’s NMI deals
At least four U.S.-based agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation are on-island to question some local lawmakers and other officials on disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s work for the Northern Marianas.
The four met with Speaker Oscar M. Babauta, Covenant-Saipan, yesterday afternoon.
Variety learned that at least one more CNMI lawmaker will be questioned to shed light on what happened during the 12th Legislature when then-Rep. Benigno R. Fitial, now the governor, became speaker.
Fitial is a key player in the scandal. The effort to fix his election as CNMI Speaker of the House is mentioned in several guilty pleas. Back when Team Abramoff was pulling out all the stops to get Fitial elected Governor, Abramoff crony Kevin Ring was in change of the CNMI account. There were many earmarks, grants and favors that flowed from the US Congress and Bush White House to the CNMI in the effort to support Fitial. Kevin Ring is under indictment and his trial should begin later this year. The story of Fitial and his pay for play governing strategy should be part of it.
For his many ties to the Abramoff corruption scandal, Fitial should have been arrested years ago. And yet, these crimes are not the worst when it comes to Ben-Tan. The decades of human rights abuses, sweatshops and the human trafficking of young women and boys into the global sex slavery trade are the crimes that really should land this weasel behind bars for the rest of his natural life.
John Bowe, in his book Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the Global Economy cited the role that Fitial and his ‘nightclubs" played when Abramoff was organizing Congressional visits to the CNMI.
The book told the story about one of those Abramoff linked trips. It was a 27 person delegation that included Delegates to Congress from other US Territories, staff members and five Members of Congress. The February 15, 1999 edition of the Marianas Variety promoted the coming trip (emphasis added):
Headed by the committee chair, US Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), the delegation includes US Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California), John Doolittle (R-California), Collin Peterson (D-Minnesota), Ken Calvert (R-California), Eni Faleomaveaga (D-American Samoa), Robert Underwood (D-Guam) and Donna Christensen (D-Virgin Islands).
The lone Democrat on the delegation, with voting rights, Peterson is a member of the US House Agriculture and Veteran Affairs Committees.
For Rohrabacher, it will be his second visit to the CNMI. During floor discussions last year in the US House of Representatives, he defended the CNMI's control over its immigration and minimum wage policies.
The delegation arrived on the 18th. Hundreds of foreign contract workers were waiting to meet with them. They had hoped that these Representatives of the US Congress were coming to learn about the ongoing abuse. Instead, the Young delegation ignored them, dismissed them and, in effect, endorsed the system of neo-slavery. John Bowe’s book lays out the details of their lazy exploration of charges of labor abuse and explains the type of fact-finding that the Young CODEL was really after (emphasis added):
Later that weekend, a group of at least three congress members took their fact-finding mission to a Filipina strip club called Orchids, owned by a local businessman named Benigno Fitial. The club, was popular with local government officials and visiting VIPs looking for a good time. Later, the gang moved on to another club, called Russian Roulette, which featured Russian strippers. According to one source who was professionally obligated to accompany the delegation around the island, "I've never seen grown men—they were just like kids!" He reported that he sat next to one congressman, who was neither drinking nor getting into the action, while the others "were running to the back of the place into these little stalls to get blow jobs. That's why they were there." I spoke with the congressman he sat next to. He admitted to being in the club but described it not as a strip club but as a karaoke bar. He assured me, "There really wasn't much going on." Neither the congressman nor my source were able to remember the names of the allegedly misbehaving congressmen.
So, there were five Congressmen on the trip. One was the source. At least three went club hopping. At least two US Congressmen were running to the "little stalls" to get blow jobs. Instead of investigating human trafficking, forced prostitution and labor abuse—these Congressmen were giddy sexual tourist. And it was a night of anything goes club hopping that started at Fitial’s strip club.
I’ve been told that Fitial is still a fan of this type of "entertainment". One US official told me that after a recent negotiation was completed, Governor Fitial invited US Negotiators to "celebrate" with him at Saipan strip clubs in the red light district.
Plans are underway to move 6,000 or more Marines from Okinawa to Guam. Speculation is growing on the CNMI that there must be ways to get those tens of thousands of Marines to spend money in the CNMI. Of course Fitial is on this. Landing more US military spending on the CNMI is a big priority for the Fitial government and the Pirates of Saipan. To this end they are planning an expansion of gambling casinos on the Island of Tinian to help Marines part with their cash. They see it a new source of Federal welfare for the Territory and a cash cow as the Pirates of Saipan take the troops to the cleaners in their casinos. But that’s not all, Governor Fitial sees other CNMI industries that the military can support:
Fitial expressed hope that Tinian would soon have a military economy in the not so distant future.
He added that he was just "joking" when he said the adult industry should be relocated to Tinian because the "poor troops need some form of entertainment."
That Fitial is a funny man. Forced prostitution and human trafficking have been a joke to him for years—for decades. I will be glad when he is finally indicted.
This guy is a corrupt bastard. He is in DC. It is way past time to fit him for his orange jump suit.
In the 109th Congress the Legislation that Abramoff and the Pirates of Saipanhad blocked for years was finally passed. The Minimum Wage was increased and finally applied to the CNMI. And last May CNMI reform legislation was signed into law. Both were great victories. And ever since then, Governor Fitial has been doing everything he can to roll them back. He has hired lobbyist. He has had tantrums. He has sued the Federal Government to get the laws overturned. Now he is actively working to stop the next schedule increase in the CNMI minimum wage and delay the extension of Federal control over CNMI Immigration laws. The Pirates are happy the way things are. Anybody can travel to the CNMI without a visa. It is a transfer point for mobsters from Russia, China and Japan. Drugs, guns, money and human beings are the goods that go back and forth and all of it is fine as long as the local corruptionists get a piece of the action.
So, Fitial and his hired goons (which include other Tan Family employees like Lynn Knight) are making the rounds of Capital Hill. They are visiting agencies like Homeland Security, Labor and the Department of the Interior to make their case to slow down and delay the coming end of their criminal enterprise. These tactics worked before with Abramoff, so they hope it will work again. We need to be sure that they fail.
The last two years have been very hard on the workers of the CNMI, especially the foreign contract workers who have been there for years. Fitial’s government is doing everything they can to "cleanse" the Marianas Islands of any long-term worker who might finally be granted rights when Federal Laws and control are extended to the CNMI. It is another chapter of abuse in a decades old horrific tale.
Fortunately, the Pirates have a nemesis and the workers have a hero. Her name is Wendy Doromal.
She is an extraordinary woman who has been fighting to extend basic human rights to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) for more than 25 years. Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay and The Pirates of Saipan have spent thousands of hours and piles of cash to stop her. She’s been threaten, slandered, shot at, belittled and ignored.
Still, she keeps fighting.
On her own dime, she has repeatedly returned to the CNMI to document the status of the workers and advocate for an end to the cycle of abuse. She has just released her latest report and has been sending it around Washington DC to give the victims a voice in the how Federal control is extended to the CNMI.
You can read it here (but prepare to be outraged).
The final pages of the 2008 Doromal report includes recommendations for finally ending the abuse and bringing justice to the CNMI. This is a report that needs to be read in the Obama White House, the DOI, the DOJ and Homeland Security and when Fitial and his team of Pirates come knocking at doors seeking more delay and more injustice they should have this report thrown in their faces. Wendy wrote her first report about the system of abuse on the CNMI way back in the 1980s. The time for more studies, reports and delays is over. It is time for justice.
Her blog, Unheard No More keeps track of the abuse and the efforts of the Pirates to protect their kleptocracy. It is essential reading and I link to it in every comment I make at Daily Kos. Wendy Doromal is an American hero. She needs our help. The workers of the CNMI need our help. Please ask your Member of Congress, Senators and the Obama Administration to read this report. Urge them to act to end the abuse and to support the recomendations in the report. And it would be great if they appointed Wendy to be an official advocate for these workers as the process to extend Federal control of the CNMI moves forward.
It is way past time to end this abuse. It is way past time to shut down Fitial and his fellow Pirates of Saipan.
Frankly, it is way past time to arrest this crook.
Perhaps the walls are closing in. Last year Timothy Villagomez, Fitial’s Lt. Governor, was indicted in a corruption scandal concerning the CNMI power company. The various guilty pleas and indictments in the Abramoff scandal keep pointing at Fitial and rumors abound about FBI interviews and DOJ depositions of CNMI related individuals who know a thing or two about Fitial, Abramoff and the various scams they ran.
It would be great to see Ben-Tan take a well deserved perp-walk. It would be satisfying to witness his frog march.
So, once again, Fitial is in DC.
Can’t we arrest him?
Pretty please.
At the very least, haul him in for questioning.
Cheers
Update: Is Fitial going to the White House?
One of the reasons Fitial is here is to attend the Winter meeting of the National Governors Conference. It is troubling to see that this Abramoff connected crook has a seat on the NGA's Natural Resources Committee. That committee will hold a meeting on Saturday afternoon.
Now it has been announced that the White House and President Obama will host a dinner for the NGA on Sunday:
WHITE HOUSE ANNOUNCES 2009 GOVERNORS’ DINNER
The White House announced today that the President and First Lady will welcome the National Governors Association to the White House on Sunday, February 22nd for the 2009 Governors’ Dinner. The evening will feature performances by the Marine Corps band and music legends Earth Wind and Fire.
"The White House is the place where our bond as Americans is strengthened," said Desiree Rogers, White House Social Secretary. "We look forward to welcoming the nation’s governors to celebrate our democratic ideals, our diversity, our shared values and the best of the American spirit."
Somebody better keep an eye on Fitial and keep him away from President Obama. The guy is a serious crook. The Obama Administration should keep this guy at arms length. On his last visit to the White House he was accompanied by Abramoff.
More than that, it is important to keep any stimulus money far away from his control. It will only join the millions of dollars already lost to the corruption of the Fitial Era.
Better to bypass Ben-Tan and get the money to somebody else.
Cheers