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Court asked to dismiss charges against former ASGERF exec director

Retirement Fund’s former executive director, Luatua Filisouaiga Ta’afua
ausage@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Associate Justice Fiti Sunia has taken under advisement a motion to dismiss the government’s case against former executive director for the American Samoa Government Employees’ Retirement Fund (ASGERF), Luatua Filisouaiga Ta’afua.

The motion, which was argued before Sunia and the Associate Judges last week was filed by Luatua’s defense attorney, Marcellus Talaimalo Uiagalelei. Prosecuting the case is Assistant Attorney General Kristine Soule.

Luatua, who was released on a $35,000 surety bond, is charged with 28 criminal counts, including 14 counts of stealing and 14 counts of embezzlement, all class C felonies, punishable by imprisonment for up to seven years, a $5,000 fine, or pursuant to A.S.C.A 46.2101, a fine equal to twice the amount of gain from the commission of said crime, up to a maximum of $20,000, or both such fine and imprisonment.

When the case was called, the defense attorney asked the court to take a close look at the case and how its affected his client’s whole life. He cited cases to support his motion and then asked the court to dismiss the government’s case against his client.

Prosecutor, Soule strongly opposed the motion. She told the court the defense is not asking the court to delay the trial date nor to continue the case to a later date, but asking for a dismissal.

Sunia wanted to know if the government’s witnesses are on island ready for the trial. Soule replied, yes. She told the court that the reason the government moved previously to dismiss the case against the defendant, was due to the fact that the government’s primary witness was off island at the time. That witness is now on island and she’s prepared for trial.

Uiagalelei told the court that when the government filed a motion to dismiss the case against his client, the court granted the government’s motion and dismissed the case against his client without prejudice. However, the government waited for 17 months to re-file their case against his client with the same charges.

After hearing submissions from both parties, Sunia said that the court would take the defense’s motion under advisement.

BACKGROUND

The charges against the defendant stem from the incident where he is accused of misappropriating funds from the ASGERF. The government stated that it was July 20, 2015, Governor Lolo Matalasi Moliga directed then Police Commission Save Liuato A. Tuitele to initiate an investigation into allegations of fraud, stealing and misappropriation of ASGERF assets.

The investigation came about after an employee of ASGERF (who's name is mentioned in the court affidavit) notified the former and now deceased board chairman of ASGERF, Fanene Scanlan of questionable vendor payments, which were signed by the defendant.

Aside from the DPS investigation, a forensic auditor from Utah carried out a separate probe and an audit report found evidence that Luatua allegedly misappropriated about $112,000 of the Fund's money for his personal use. Luatua was placed on leave with pay for several months when the case surfaced in the beginning of 2015 and was later terminated in Jan. 2016.

The late Fanene Morris Scanlan, who was the Fund's board chairman when Luatua was executive director, initiated the probe to look at claims that Luatua approved travel and per diem payments for himself and other members of the staff, and issued checks to a janitorial company with which he was affiliated.

On Jan 29, 2016, investigators executed a search warrant at the Bank of Hawaii for the defendant’s personal bank records. A few weeks later, on Feb. 8th, investigators executed a search warrant at the Bank of Hawaii and the ASGERF office for all documents relating to the ASGERF Administrative and Benefits accounts.