Saipan Island, Northern Mariana Islands: Airline employee allegedly stole $22K from company

Police arrested Wednesday an airline employee who allegedly stole $22,723.69 from the company's daily sales.

Rayburn Dolmers C. Espangel, 29, a pax service agent of Unlimited Service Group who is facing theft charges, was taken to the Superior Court Friday afternoon for a bail hearing. His bail was set at $10,000 cash.

Police detective Vincent S. Salas stated in his report that a police officer responded Wednesday afternoon to the Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport after receiving a report of a theft incident.

Salas said investigation showed that a recent audit conducted by Unlimited Service Group revealed several discrepancies in the sales reports, leading to the identification of Espangel as the suspect.

Unlimited Service Group cleans aircraft and is in charge of the operations of the former Cape Air.

Salas said that when the officer asked Espangel how he stole the money, the suspect allegedly explained that, as an employee of United Service Group, he and a co-worker have access to a safe box. The co-worker would first open the outer lock, then he would open the inner lock. Once the day's sales are accounted for, the co-worker would leave, trusting that Espangel would secure the sales back in the box.

When he's alone, Espangel would allegedly pocket a portion of the sales before securing the remainder in the safe box.

Salas said that in an interview with another detective, Espangel allegedly provided a full statement detailing how he stole the money.

Espangel explained that he began working for the company in 2011 and that in a short period of time he became a supervisor and was placed in charge of sales.

Espangel allegedly admitted that sometime in August 2012 he began taking a portion of the money from the daily sales and would use the sales from the next day to replenish the amount he took. The amount, however, gradually became too big for the suspect to cover up.

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