The wife of Sen. Lito Lapid returned to Las Vegas, Nevada, on Jan. 15 at the invitation of the Department of Homeland Security in connection with the offense she committed in November 2011 of not declaring the $50,000, she carried to the United States, her American lawyer said on Saturday.
“[Marissa Tadeo Lapid] came at the invitation of the Homeland Security. She was invited to deal with the issue,” lawyer Eliot Krieger said in a telephone interview Saturday.
Krieger told reporters that Marissa has denied smuggling money into the US and that his firm would “vigorously” defend its client against the smuggling charges.
“She will have her day in court,” said Krieger, a former assistant US attorney and graduate of Harvard Law School, who works with the Southern California-based firm Jarvis, Krieger & Sullivan. Krieger, who also has a PhD from Johns Hopkins University and handles family law and criminal matters, is on the superlawyers.com list of top attorneys in Southern California.
Krieger’s statement clarified reports that Marissa was unaware that she had committed a federal violation and faced impending arrest for the offense she committed in November. She was briefly held when she was caught carrying $50,000 last November but allowed to return to the Philippines for the Christmas holidays without any charges being filed against her.
Marissa was arrested at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas as she arrived from the Philippines on Jan. 15 for the November offense. She is now free on bail.
According to Krieger, Marissa’s return to the US this month meant she had complied with the invitation.
Krieger described Marissa as doing well and staying home.
He said she had been ordered by the court to restrict her travels within Clark County.
He confirmed that Marissa wore an ankle-monitoring bracelet equipped with a GPS (global positioning system) to monitor her location.
In an interview with reporters in Los Angeles on Saturday, Krieger said the US government has placed a lien on the Las Vegas property of Marissa to cover her $500,000 bail.
The real estate website Blockshopper listed two Las Vegas properties under the names of Marissa and her son, Maynard, 27, a US citizen. The properties are in 7304 Bugler Swan Wy and on 2055 Buffalo Drive.
Facing smuggling charges
Marissa faces smuggling charges for failing to declare the $50,000 when she entered the US last November.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said dollar smuggling is punishable by a fine of $500,000 and a maximum 10-year imprisonment.
US federal laws require arriving passengers to declare any currency or monetary instrument totaling $10,000 or more. Violators are fined $250,000 and the money recovered from them are confiscated by the US government.
According to Krieger, Marissa returned to the US “on the invitation of the Department of Homeland Security to deal with this issue.”
He said Marissa was not aware that criminal charges had been filed against her and that “she willingly came back to the US in response to the invitation.”
A preliminary hearing has been set for Feb. 7, Krieger said.
A published report in the US quoted Marissa as saying that she was going to use the money to buy a house.
But the senator said his wife meant to use the money for her medical expenses, explaining that she had gone to the US to seek treatment for a bone ailment.
He said the cash belonged to his wife, who he said had the means because she owns and runs several businesses in Porac, their Pampanga hometown.