Operation LAND OF THIEVES, PART 2#: CNMIs' CORRUPT CABAL OF CELEBRATION
- CNMIGA .ORG
- 2 days ago
- 11 min read
In the heart of President Donald J. Trump’s second term, the America First agenda is delivering historic results:
securing borders, slashing wasteful spending, and holding accountable those who treat American taxpayer dollars as their personal piggy bank.
Yet one small, remote corner of the American family—the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI)—remains a glaring exception in the CNMI federal funds fraud scandal.
This tiny archipelago of roughly 47,000 residents, heavily reliant on foreign guest workers under the CW-1 visa program, continues to absorb hundreds of millions in federal grants while delivering little more than chronic audit failures, untraceable funds, and elite protection rackets in the ongoing CNMI corruption crisis.
Demand for immediate action: Vice President JD Vance’s fraud task force, the Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs (OIA), and the Bureau of Insular Affairs must launch a full forensic review TODAY.
No more taxpayer dollars until every missing cent is traced and every responsible party is prosecuted in this CNMI grants scandal.
Read:>>>
Over $335 million in American taxpayer money—CARES Act, American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), EPA, FEMA, HHS, BOOST, and other programs—has vanished or been transferred offshore with no full accounting (* at the time of this writing).
For 25 years, the same individual have cycled through grants management roles, failing to file required federal audits, signing off on disbursements, and refusing to disclose beneficiaries.
Now, on February 27, 2026, Governor David M. Apatang has reinstated Epiphanio “Epi” Cabrera as Administrator of the Office of Grants Management, reversing an acting governor’s termination over delinquent reporting that placed the entire CNMI government “at serious risk with our federal partners.”
This is not governance.
This is the CNMI corrupt cabal throwing a celebration of impunity while American taxpayers foot the bill.
The Reinstatement That Defies Accountability – The Cabal’s Celebration
On February 21, 2026, Lt. Governor Dennis Mendiola, serving as acting governor while Apatang was off-island, terminated Cabrera and former DPS Commissioner Anthony I. Macaranas.
Mendiola cited excessive travel, misrepresentation of the Office of Grants Management, and critical reporting delinquencies that endangered federal funding streams.
Yet within days of returning, Governor Apatang nullified the action, calling the termination “illegal” for lack of proper notice under excepted service rules.
Cabrera was reinstated with full back pay, treated as administrative leave.
Apatang praised him: “The guy is working very hard.
We’d be lost without him at the grants office.
He secured a lot of grants for the Commonwealth.”
Today’s reinstatement—confirmed across Marianas Variety and local news outlets on February 27, 2026—marks the CNMI corrupt cabal of celebration.
The same Epi Cabrera who oversaw the Office of Grants Management during years of missing audits now returns in triumph.
This is the cabal celebrating their control over federal dollars in the CNMI federal funds fraud scandal.
Expanded with evidence and urgent demand:
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s June 30, 2025 report (GAO-25-107560, “U.S. Territories: Public Debt and Economic Outlook — 2025 Update”), CNMI single audits are delayed nearly two years, with independent auditors flagging “numerous audit findings related to the territory’s financial reporting and federal awards.”
The GAO explicitly warns that such delays “could affect the territory’s eligibility for federal grant assistance.”
Yet in September 2025, the Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) awarded the CNMI $250,000 specifically for “audit preparation” because insular governments including CNMI remain “a year or more behind statutory deadlines for completing their Single Audits.”
This is taxpayer money being used to fix the very failures that allowed $257 million to disappear.
The October 2025 Ernst & Young FY2022 audit—released just months ago—revealed $257.4 million in questioned costs, with the CNMI Office of the Public Auditor warning that officials “may face criminal charges for misuse of federal Covid funds.”
Public records from the CNMI Office of Grants Management’s own 2025 Citizen Centric Report list tens of millions in new awards (including $48.7 million from EPA IRA and multiple DOI BIL projects) while openly acknowledging ongoing compliance issues.
America First demand:
Secretary Scott Bessent at Treasury and OIA leadership must immediately freeze all new discretionary grants to the CNMI Office of Grants Management until FY2022–2025 single audits are submitted, questioned costs fully resolved, and a public beneficiary ledger for the $257 million is released.
FBI Saipan and DOJ must open a criminal probe into Cabrera’s reinstatement within 48 hours.
No more excuses.
American taxpayers are not an ATM for unaccountable insular elites in this CNMI corruption nightmare.
These are not rhetorical questions from fringe activists.
They are the core of “Operation LAND OF THIEVES: Thieves Cabal,” the second installment in a public accountability series exposing systemic graft in this close-knit community dominated by a small network of local elites and foreign business interests.
A Decade of Unaccounted Dollars: From Covenant to Corruption
The CNMI’s covenant with the United States was meant to deliver prosperity and self-determination.
Instead, as detailed in the exposé From Covenant to Corruption: A Decade of Unaccounted Federal Dollars, it has become a one-way pipeline. Federal funds now comprise over 50% of the local budget. Single audits required under the Single Audit Act and 2 CFR 200 are chronically late or missing entirely.
FY2022–2023 central government audits were simply never submitted. Questioned costs from prior years—$74.8 million in FY2021 alone, with $69.8 million unresolved—have piled up like unpaid IOUs to the American people.
READ:>>>
GAO, OIA, and missing-funds data:
The GAO-25-107560 report details CNMI public debt at $121.1 million as of September 30, 2021 (13% of GDP), up sharply due to emergency pension borrowing—$24.3 million in 2020 and another $51 million in late 2024—while tourism remains depressed post-COVID and casino scandals.
The report highlights “limited prospects for recovery” and “deepening challenges to meet its financial obligations.”
OIA’s own September 2025 announcement of $250,000 audit-assistance grants to CNMI (part of broader Technical Assistance Program funding) admits the backlog threatens federal funding eligibility.
The October 2025 FY2022 audit exposed $257.4 million in questioned costs, triggering warnings of potential criminal charges for misuse of CARES and ARPA funds.
Remittances and offshore transfers of federally derived funds continue unchecked, with no FinCEN-mandated tracing.
The Bureau of Insular Affairs/OIA has provided technical assistance repeatedly, yet the pattern of missing audits and unaccounted funds persists—exactly the “audit black hole” described in the book, where FY2015 showed $17.1 million questioned, FY2018 material weaknesses, and 2022–2023 zero central submissions.
Zeno’s Paradox in action: Endless promises of compliance that never materialize while new grants flow. The 2025 OIA discretionary awards totaled millions to CNMI for infrastructure and energy—funds that risk the same fate without immediate oversight in the CNMI federal funds fraud investigation.
Demand for action:
The Vance Fraud Task Force, Rep. Tim Burchett’s DOGE Subcommittee, and Chairman James Comer’s House Oversight Committee must subpoena all CNMI grants records since 2015 within 30 days.
Treasury FinCEN and IRS-CI must initiate track-and-trace on every offshore transfer.
OIA must condition every future dollar on real-time public dashboards of expenditures. Prosecute the theft or end the funding pipeline entirely.
America First does not subsidize corruption in the Pacific.
The June 2025 GAO report confirms the crisis: As of the most recent available data (FY2021), CNMI public debt stood at $121.1 million (13% of GDP), up 12% from 2019.
Tourism, the economic backbone, remains depressed.
Casinos collapsed amid scandal.
ALL PART OF THE "SINO-PHILLIPINO FRAUD PIPELINE"
Pension liabilities forced emergency borrowing—$24.3 million in 2020, another $51 million in late 2024.
Single audits are delayed nearly two years.
The GAO warns of deepening challenges to meeting financial obligations.
This is Zeno’s Paradox in fiscal form: endless motion toward accountability that never arrives.
Audits are promised, then postponed. Funds are disbursed, then “lost.” Investigations are requested, then ignored. Meanwhile, remittances flow out to foreign bank accounts, foreign-owned businesses dominate, and local American citizens— Carolinian and Chuukese descendants—watch their islands’ future auctioned off in the CNMI corruption cabal.
The Foreign-Dominated Reality and America First Imperative
The CNMI is not a typical American community.
Decades of CW-1 visas have created a labor force where foreign workers (primarily Filipino and Chinese nationals with "Anchor Babies") vastly outnumber locals in key sectors.
This demographic reality, combined with Article XII land restrictions that bar most mainland Americans from owning property, has produced a closed system: federal dollars in, capital and influence out.
Elite insiders secure grants, foreign entities benefit, and accountability evaporates in the Pacific haze.
Reports and demand:
GAO-25-107560 notes CNMI’s “undiversified economy” and “outmigration,” exacerbated by foreign labor dominance and remittance outflows.
OIA oversight hearings in 2025 highlighted external threats and the need for better grant accountability in Pacific territories.
Open-source CNMIGA documentation and the Covenant book detail how CW-1 schemes, sole-source contracts, and rapid offshore transfers have siphoned funds.
The October 2025 $257.4 million questioned costs audit underscores how this foreign-influenced system enables the CNMI grants scandal.
This is not self-determination—it is foreign-influenced dependency on American taxpayers.
President Trump’s Executive Order 14249 (March 25, 2025)—Protecting America’s Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse—demands pre-certification verification, Do Not Pay system enforcement, core financial system consolidation, and reduction of non-Treasury disbursing offices.
It targets the exact fragmentation and opacity plaguing places like the CNMI.
Vice President JD Vance’s fraud task force, Rep. Tim Burchett’s DOGE Subcommittee, Secretary Scott Bessent at Treasury, IRS Criminal Investigations, FinCEN, and Chairman James Comer’s House Oversight Committee were explicitly named in open letters as recipients of 32 GB of indexed evidence on bid-rigging, kickbacks, visa fraud, and offshore transfers.
VICE PRESIDENT LETTER >>>
Senator Marsha Blackburn responded forcefully to CNMIGA.ORG in May 2025: “What you’ve described—a pattern of fraud, corruption, and foreign exploitation—represents an egregious betrayal of American taxpayers… I am formally requesting that the relevant Senate oversight committees and federal agencies… immediately review your submitted materials and initiate the investigations you have outlined.”
Letter from Sen. Marsha Blackburn to CNMIGA.ORG:
A White House response on immigration policy, while not directly addressing CNMI grants, underscores the administration’s zero-tolerance stance on abuse of federal systems.***We will post that letter in part #3
America First Demand: Enforce EO 14249 in the CNMI immediately.
OIA and Treasury must block all disbursements lacking pre-certification.
Congress must pass legislation stripping block-grant status from any territory more than 12 months behind single audits.
Vance task force—investigate the foreign-remittance pipeline NOW in the CNMI federal funds fraud case.
Why No Arrests? What Exactly Is the Saipan FBI Doing?
The pattern is unmistakable:
Best Sunshine matter, money laundering, theft of pandemic relief—yet silence from federal authorities on Saipan.
Subjects are departing the islands, threatening jurisdiction and asset recovery.
Block-grant designations have reduced transparency.
The CNMI judiciary and federal district court JUDGE RAMONA MANGLONA have faced allegations of conflicts shielding implicated parties.
READ:>>>
GAO and OIA reports confirm the systemic nature:
chronic audit failures directly enabled the $257.4 million questioned costs in the October 2025 audit, with the CNMI Office of the Public Auditor stating officials “may face criminal charges.”
Local open-source investigations document $163 million in questionably spent federal funds in single years under prior administrations, ghost contracts, and untraceable ARPA/CARES flows.
No arrests despite 32 GB evidence flashdrive packages sent to federal offices.
This is not oversight failure—it is dereliction in the CNMI corruption investigation.
America First demand:
Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel must direct the Saipan Resident Agents to execute search warrants on the Office of Grants Management and related entities within 72 hours.
Treasury OIG and DOI OIG must jointly audit every dollar since 2018.
Publicly release the names of beneficiaries of the $257 million.
If the Saipan FBI continues inaction, reassign leadership and bring in mainland task forces. American sovereignty stops at no territory’s border.
This cannot stand under America First.
American sovereignty extends to every territory.
Taxpayers in Ohio, Texas, and Florida should not subsidize a system where grants flow to unaccountable insiders while schools lack supplies, hospitals lack medicine, and legitimate local businesses shutter in the CNMI grants scandal.
The Path Forward: No More Delays – End the CNMI Corrupt Cabal Celebration
The Trump-Vance administration has the tools:
1. Activate the Vance Fraud Task Force and DOGE Subcommittee for a full forensic audit of all federal grants to the CNMI since 2015.
2. Direct Treasury, FinCEN, and IRS-CI to track and trace every dollar sent offshore by CNMI entities or foreign businesses/individuals.
3. Enforce Executive Order 14249: Require pre-disbursement verification and claw back improper payments.
4. Review and potentially terminate the CNMI’s block-grant status until single audits are current and questioned costs resolved.
5. Appoint a Federal Grants Comptroller or special oversight body with real enforcement power.
6. Provide robust whistleblower protections for those exposing retaliation—denied employment, threats, compromised courts.
7. Immediately investigate the February 27, 2026 reinstatement of Epi Cabrera as part of the broader CNMI federal funds fraud probe.
Incorporate GAO recommendations for improved financial reporting in territories.
Mandate OIA withhold all future Technical Assistance and discretionary grants (as ironically done in the 2025 $250k audit grants) until compliance.
Require monthly public reports on questioned costs resolution.
Invoke False Claims Act recoveries for the $257.4 million plus interest.
Congress must hold immediate oversight hearings on OIA’s role in Pacific territorial fraud prevention.
Final urgent call to action:
Vice President Vance, Chairman Comer, Secretary Bessent, Director of National Intelligence Patel, and Attorney General Bondi: the eyes of every America First patriot are on the Pacific.
Launch the investigation into CNMI corruption.
Trace the funds.
Hold the accountable.
End the corrupt cabal’s celebration.
Restore integrity.
The American people—and the honest residents of the CNMI—deserve nothing less.
The time for action is now.
No more Zeno’s Paradox.
No more covenant betrayed.
Deliver justice, or the black hole will swallow more than just millions—it will swallow trust in American governance itself.
This article draws directly from public records, GAO-25-107560, the October 2025 Ernst & Young audit, OIA announcements, congressional correspondence, and open-source documentation compiled by CNMIGA and independent watchdogs.
Full evidence packages 32GB remain available to authorized federal investigators.
About the Author
Zaji “Persona Non Grata” Zajradhara is a staunch advocate for American workers and indigenous rights in the CNMI. Labeled a “persona non grata” by the CNMI government for his relentless pursuit of justice and his outspoken criticism of corruption and foreign influence, Zajradhara has become a symbol of resistance against the forces seeking to undermine American sovereignty in the islands.
As An Unemployed Afro-American resident and father, Zajradhara's firsthand experience with the CNMI’s dysfunctional labor market, its rigged political system, and the exploitation of vulnerable communities has fueled his activism. He has filed numerous legal claims against companies, including Tan Holdings, for violating labor laws and discriminating against American workers.
His unwavering commitment to exposing the truth, challenging the status quo, and demanding accountability has made him a thorn in the side of the CNMI establishment and a target of their efforts to silence him. However, Zajradhara remains undeterred, determined to fight for the rights of American workers and to protect the CNMI from the grip of foreign influence.
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