Jano and Weilbacher convicted on two counts acquitted on others in fraudulent Vessel Flagging scheme

By Bill Jaynes

The Kaselehlie Press

January 30, 2023

FSM—On January 17, 2023, the FSM Supreme Court convicted two local men on charges related to an illegal FSM vessel flagging operation. The Court also acquitted the men on a charge of Theft of National Government property.

The FSM National Government filed the charges on April 17, 2020. Associate Justice Larry Wentworth issued the decision on the charges from the bench and memorialized the ruling in writing on January 26.

The Court ruled that FSM prosecutors had presented enough evidence to convict local Attorney Martin Jano of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The Court also ruled that FSM Secretary of the Department of Transportation, Communications, and Infrastructure, Lukner Weilbacher had committed the crime of Conflict of Interest. Both crimes carry the potential of jail terms and/or fines.

The Court acquitted Weilbacher on the charge of Exertion of Special Interest in the scheme. It also acquitted the men of the charge of Conspiracy to Commit Theft of National Government Property.

The initial filing of criminal charges with the court spanned 265 pages. Suniel K. Sharma was named in the majority of the charges. Sharma has been absent from the FSM’s jurisdiction for crimes related to a scheme that he allegedly conceived of and operated to issue false FSM marine vessel flags for pay. Sharma set up a company known as Micronesia International Ship Registry (MISR) and allegedly sold flags to vessels around the world that were not qualified to operate with the FSM flag under FSM law, which specifically bans issuance of the flags to non-domestic operators. $600,000 was fraudulently collected under the scheme. Additionally, the scheme damaged the FSM’s international reputation, which took some time to rebuild.

Initially, Sharma, Jano, and Weilbacher were the defendants in Criminal Case 2020-501 but were severed from the case to be independently prosecuted due to his continued absence from the FSM’s jurisdiction.

Weilbacher and Jano were both charged with conspiring with Sharma to commit theft through the collection of fees for registration of foreign vessels under the FSM flag in an open ship registry (MISR) that Sharma, or one of his companies operated in the FSM’s name.