US tags Palau Senate president, former Marshall Islands mayor for corruption

By Mar-Vic Cagurangan

The U.S. Department of State has designated a Palauan lawmaker and a former Marshal Islands mayor for corruption, banning them from entering the United States.

Thomas Pigott, a spokesperson for the department, said Palau Senate President Hokkons Baules “abused his public position by accepting bribes in exchange for providing advocacy and support for government, business and criminal interests from China.”

Baules was among the most vocal critics of the U.S. military buildup in Palau and Washington’s plan to transfer U.S. deportees to the Pacific island nation.

Hokkons Baules

In the Marshall Islands, Anderson Jibas, former mayor of the Kili, Bikini and Ejit islands, has been tagged for allegedly stealing U.S. funds intended for survivors of U.S. nuclear testing in the 1940s and 1950s.

Pigott said Jibas orchestrated multiple misappropriation schemes "involving theft, misuse and abuse of funds" from the U.S.-provided Bikini Resettlement Trust during his term in office.

“The theft, misuse, and abuse of the U.S.-provided money for the fund wasted U.S. taxpayer money and contributed to a loss of jobs, food insecurity and migration to the United States, and lack of reliable electricity for the Kili/Bikini/Ejit people,” Pigott said.

The department’s spokesperson said the lack of accountability for Jibas’ actions “has eroded public trust in the government of the Marshall Islands, creating an opportunity for malign foreign influence from China and others.”

“These actions render Baules, Jibas, and their immediate family members generally ineligible for entry into the United States,” Pigott said.

Jack Niedenthal, the Marshall Islands' former health secretary, first blew the whistle on the misappropriation of funds in 2023, a move that cost him his job at the ministry.

In March 2023, he sought the U.S. Department of the Interior’s assistance in auditing two trust funds provided by the U.S. government for Kili, Bikini and Ejit islands, noting that nearly $100 million in trust funds had been depleted “in just seven short years at the hands of our own selfish leaders.”

The Public Service Commission later canceled Niedenthal’s two-year extension of contract with the Ministry of Health.

Palau and the Marshall Islands are affiliated with the United States through separate Compacts of Free Association.

The Bikini Claims Trust Fund was provided to the Marshall Islands under the first compact cycle.

“The United States will continue to promote accountability for those who abuse public power for personal gain and steal from our citizens to enrich themselves,” Pigott said.

“These designations reaffirm the United States’ commitment to countering global corruption affecting U.S. interests," he added.

Baules did not reply to our request for comment through email, while Jibas could not be reached as of this writing.