Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A former employee of the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (PX) in Tafuna has been charged with stealing and embezzling more than $100,000. 

The criminal complaints against Sophia Esau were filed by Jonathan Brickey, a Region Retail Program Specialist for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) stationed in Japan, who reported the theft and embezzlement at the Post Exchange Store (PX) in Tafuna last October.

The defendant is facing 50 criminal charges, including 25 counts of theft and 25 counts of embezzlement. The District Court set bail for the defendant at $80,000.  

Court filings indicate that upon arrival, officers contacted Brickey, who briefed them on the incident involving Sophia Esau, a PX employee. Brickey reported that the case resulted in a total financial loss of $117,228.63. He stated that Esau had been interviewed before the police arrived and had confessed to the offense.

Furthermore, Brickey expressed his intent to pursue criminal charges against Esau to the fullest extent of the law and stated he would fully cooperate with law enforcement during the prosecution of this case. Relevant information and supporting documentation were collected from both Brickey and Medina before leaving the facility.

Esau was informed of the need for further questioning and agreed to meet the officers at the Tafuna Police Substation. Upon her arrival, Officer Sepa, assisted by additional personnel, advised Esau of her constitutional rights, which she acknowledged. She voluntarily agreed to make a statement.

In her statement, Esau allegedly admitted to misappropriating AAFES cash sales deposits for personal use, starting in March 2023. She cited financial hardship due to a family member's illness as her initial motivation for the theft. To cover these costs, she used approximately $10,000 from the store deposit funds and disclosed that she spent about $9,000 on personal expenses.

As the individual responsible for overseeing the PX depository, the lack of independent monitoring enabled the misappropriation of funds to go undetected for an extended period. Each morning, Esau entered the PX building, counted the vault's contents, and calculated the total amount scheduled for deposit. She then placed the cash into her personal backpack and informed the other manager that she was transporting the funds to the bank.

Further investigation revealed that Esau employed a deposit manipulation scheme to conceal the thefts. Missing deposits from previous dates were replaced with funds collected on subsequent dates. Original deposit slips from earlier dates were retrieved, and new funds were deposited under those prior dates. Current deposit slips were retained until the following deposit cycle. For instance, funds collected on a Monday were used to cover shortages from earlier deposit days.

In 2024, Esau claimed to have taken $15,000 from AAFES funds to pay a personal loan with Navy Federal. She refinanced that loan and took out over $20,000 to replenish the AAFES funds. Additionally, she withdrew $17,000 from AAFES funds to repay what she had taken from her 401(k). She then borrowed $20,000 from her 401(k) and returned it to the AAFES funds. However, the missing funds accumulated faster than she could replenish them, making it increasingly difficult to conceal the discrepancies.

In response to these growing issues, she allegedly fabricated a story claiming that her vehicle had been broken into and that the deposit funds had been stolen. To support this false narrative and eliminate evidence of her misconduct, she discarded the deposit slips and checks for the missing deposits, which were dated from September 2, 2025, to October 7, 2025, in a dumpster outside Pacific Mini Mart in Tafuna. The last legitimate deposit she made occurred before September 1, 2025.

On October 21, 2025, a request was submitted to the Attorney General's Office for a stop order to prevent Esau from leaving the island during the ongoing investigation. The Attorney General's Office confirmed on the same day that the stop order notification had been processed and was ready for issuance.

On Wednesday, October 22, 2025, Esau was presented with the stop order and, during police questioning, confirmed discarding approximately six or seven customer checks but could not recall their amounts. She became emotional, acknowledged her wrongdoing, and expressed a desire to make things right.

Police noted that records from the PX office confirmed that a total of 7 missing customer checks, totaling $1,684.87, had been identified. These missing checks corresponded to dates of PX sales for which no deposit slips were recorded in the PX records. This information supports Esau’s prior statement that she had discarded approximately six or seven checks.