A former ANZ commercial bank teller, who allegedly stole funds from the American Samoa Government Retirement Fund and the ASCC financial aid Pell Grant accounts, made her initial appearance in the District Court last week on charges of stealing and embezzlement.

Aialani Foster is being held behind bars on bail of $10,000.

According to the government’s case, this incident was reported to the police on June 6, 2014 by the Head of the Operation Risk and Assurance for the ANZ Guam, Inc.-  American Samoa branch, which filed a complaint with the police regarding a former ANZ Guam employee. The matter was then investigated by the Criminal Investigation Division headed by Commander Lavata’i Ta’ase Sagapolutele.

Court filings say that the bank conducted its own investigation on March 22, 2014 for internal fraud and then focused on Foster, a commercial teller who had been identified as cashing out two unauthorized checks that had been delivered to the bank via night deposit.

The government’s case claims that the ASG Retirement Fund account and ASCC’s financial aid account has since been reimbursed for their losses by the bank.

It’s alleged that a citizen had cashed check #08653 for $915.35 drawn on ASCC Financial Aid Pell Grant account at a local market which had subsequently been deposited to their account at the bank on February 25, 2014, however the next day, that same check was processed again and withdrawn on the ASCC Financial Aid Pell Grant by Foster.  These banking actions were verified by her employee identification number, a unique password and appeared on the business deposit and cashed out receipt.

Court filings further point out that on March 17, 2014 Foster was assigned to run the night deposit bag where it showed an $891 check deposit that was drawn from an ASG retirement account, and on the same day Foster allegedly performed a withdrawal on the same check number with the same amount drawn from the same account — the ASG’s retirement fund account. It’s alleged that further investigation into the matter revealed that it was Foster who performed these actions based on Foster’s unique pin number.