Timothy Villagomez

House of Representatives In 2003, Villagomez was elected to the Northern Mariana Islands House of Representatives from Precinct #1. He finished second of twenty candidates for six seats. He served in the House from January 2004 to January 2006. At the start of his term, he was elected the Vice Speaker, defeating David M. Apatang with 10 votes to Apatang's 8 votes. Speaker Fitial also named him the chairman of the Committee on Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications. Lieutenant governor On November 4th, 2005, Benigno Fitial announced that he had selected Villagomez to be his running mate in the 2005 general election. The Fitial-Villagomez ticket won the election. He was sworn into office on January 9, 2006 ==Criminal conviction==

In August 2008, Villagomez was indicted on felony charges relating to the misuse of government funds. On April 24, 2009, he was found guilty along with former Commerce Secretary James A. Santos and his wife Joaquina V. Santos (Villagomez's sister) relating to a scheme to defraud the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. through needless purchases of a de-scaling chemical called Rydlyme. Awaiting sentencing on July 28, 2009, Villagomez tendered his resignation on April 24. Villagomez was later transferred to the U.S. Penitentiary at Tucson, Arizona with a release date of June 23, 2017. In December 2012, the Ninth Circuit vacated Villagomez's sentence citing a mistake in calculation. On June 12, 2013, Villagomez was resentenced to 108 months, an increase of 21 months from the original. Villagomez began his term of supervised release on June 24, 2017, in the District of Idaho. At Villagomez’s request, his supervision was transferred to the U.S. Probation Office for the NMI, and is set to expire on June 23, 2020. ==References==