A judge in Las Vegas, Nevada, has turned down the request of the wife of Sen. Manuel “Lito” Lapid to live in the Philippines as she serves three years of probation for dollar smuggling and reporting violations, an Inquirer source said.
The wife of Sen. Lito Lapid felt “very relieved” that her cash smuggling case is over following her sentencing by the US district court to three years of probation, said her lawyer Eliot Krieger. The probation period includes five months of home confinement.
The preliminary hearing on a cash smuggling case against the wife of Senator Lito Lapid has been postponed for the second time to give her lawyers more time to prepare her defense.
The preliminary hearing on the cash smuggling case against Marissa Lapid, which was scheduled for February 7, has been postponed, according to Lapid’s lawyer, Elliot Krieger.
The filing of a federal criminal case against Marissa Lapid, the wife of Sen. Lito Lapid, is not an isolated case. There are quite a few Filipino travelers leaving or entering the United States who found themselves subjected to penalties of forfeiture for failure to report the money or currency in their bags. Not all were criminally prosecuted. Most of them were able to get their money returned after paying minimal penalties.
The wife of Senator Lito Lapid will not be required by the United States Attorney’s Office in Nevada to explain the source of her wealth when the hearing on her case for dollar smuggling starts on February 7, according to her American lawyer.
The wife of Senator Manuel “Lito” Lapid returned to Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 15 at the invitation of the Department of Homeland Security in connection with her bringing $50,000 into the United States last November, her American lawyer said Saturday.
The $50,000 that Senator Lito Lapid’s wife supposedly tried to smuggle into the United States last year was meant for medical treatment to cure her bone ailment, according to the senator.
