U.S. and Vietnamese government officials are expected to hand over later this month to Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga the more than $1 million which was illegally wire-transferred from one of the ASG accounts at Bank of Hawai’i to the Vietnam International Bank nearly three years ago.

Former Congressman Faleomavaega Eni had worked with federal and Vietnamese officials on the matter following a request by the former Togiola Administration more than two years ago. The funds which had been illegally transferred were part of a federal grant.

Samoa News understands that Faleomavaega has been informed and invited to attend the “hand over ceremony” in Washington D.C., but date and venue of the event is not yet confirmed.

Samoa News learned early yesterday afternoon that officials of the U.S. Justice Department and U.S. State Department are expected to attend the “hand-over ceremony”, along with Vietnam’s new ambassador to the United States.

The governor executive assistant Iulogologo Joseph Pereira said late yesterday afternoon that a ceremony has been staged in the nation’s capital with the State Department in which the money will be returned to the governor.

He says the Attorney General had been working with the State Department officials “to help us recover the money” and the AG was informed late last month that the State Department has been successful in securing the return of the funds to ASG.

Iulogologo also said that the governor had also reached out to Interior Assistant Secretary  Asst. Secretary Esther Kia'aina “to please help us secure the return of the funds”.

“This has been a long process which started at the onset of the Lolo-Lemanu Administration,” said Iulogologo, adding that Faleomavaega had been working with the governor, Talauega, and the Governor’s Office in petitioning the Vietnamese government to repatriate the hacked funds back to ASG.

“The Governor is thankful that all the expended efforts from so many people will result in a very positive outcome,” he added.

Lolo departs tomorrow night for off island meetings, which include meetings in Washington D.C. such as the annual Winter Meeting of the National Governors Association.

During a local Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee hearing yesterday morning, Sen. Gaea Pelefoti Failautusi asked Attorney General Talauega Eleasalo Ale if ASG had yet received the funds that were illegally transferred to Vietnam.

Talauega responded, not yet, but he said that it’s expected that the money will be presented to the governor while he is in Washington D.C.

In August, 2011, ASG discovered the illegal wire transfer of funds to an unknown account at the Vietnam International Bank (VIB), where the money has remained frozen while the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and security officials in Vietnam launched their own investigations into the matter.

Faleomavaega informed Governor Lolo M. Moliga in May this year that the Vietnamese government, through their Office of Public Security in cooperation with the FBI, “has verified that the person or persons responsible for the fraudulent wire transfer were not Vietnamese or based in Vietnam.”

Before leaving office last December, Faleomavaega told Samoa News that  the Vietnamese government had informed his office that the $1.2 million will be returned “very soon” to ASG,with all investigations — both by the FBI and the government of Vietnam — now complete.

“All proper channels have been cleared for the release of the funds, since this was a money laundering case, a hacker who is not in Vietnam, but from another country,” Faleomavaega said.

Faleomavaega’s staff met during the summer last year in Hanoi with Vietnamese government officials, and then a few months later met with the FBI to verify and get an update on the investigations by both sides, whose officials revealed that the investigations are now completed.

The congressman says the FBI confirmed to his office what the Vietnamese government had relayed to this staff, that “this was a hacker that the government of Vietnam had nothing to do with — and that the hacker was from another country.”