Former ASG Human Resources Department director Evelyn Langford admitted to a federal investigator that she could have returned the more than $200,000 she received from a Native Hawaiian Holding Company (NHHC) official, but didn’t, because the money was needed to pay her debt to the U.S. Army, according to a U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) declaration filed with federal court in Oakland, California where Langford will be sentenced today for wire fraud and bribery.

In addition to getting the “loan” of $250,000 from NHHC official Quin Rudin prosecutors said in new court filings that Rudin also provided a job for Langford’s son, who was not identified by name.

The NHHC was an off-island company, which had been awarded, by ASG, a multi-million dollar contract under the federal National Emergency Grant program of the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL).

The declaration was filed Tuesday this week by Honolulu based FBI Special Agent Matthew McDonald, who previously served as the FBI’s American Samoa Resident Agent for three-years.

In his declaration, McDonald said that he had conducted a phone interview with Langford on Jan. 31, 2014 from Hawai’i while the defendant was in Texas. A federal prosecutor also participated in the call from California, during which Langford “admitted that she took funds from NHHC or from an individual associated with NHHC, Quin Rudin,” according to McDonald’s declaration.

“Specifically, Langford stated that she had received funds related to her travel expenses and that she had also had another ‘financial transaction’ with Rudin of $250,000,” McDonald says.

Additionally, Langford stated that one of the reasons that she did not inform anyone in the American Samoa government or USDOL about the $250,000 payment she received was that “she knew it was wrong to take the money from either NHHC or an individual or company associated with it.”

Langford also stated during the interview that if Rudin’s payment to her was made known, she knew that: she would be required to return the funds; ASG’s contract with NHHC would be cancelled; or ASG would not get the funding from the USDOL.

Langford also explained that she believed that the $250,000 payment would be made to her by the company Dearborne International, and not by NHHC, he said.

(Prosecutors said in their sentencing memorandum filed last week Friday that Langford had received $10,000 wire transferred from the bank account of Dearborne International, which is controlled by Rudin and a $250,000 wire transfer from the NHHC account.)

According to McDonald’s declaration, Langford stated that she had told Rudin that the money could not come from NHHC. But after later reviewing her bank statement, Langford learned that the $250,000 payment had indeed come from NHHC.

“Langford was asked why she did not give the funds back after she realized that they had come from NHHC,” the declaration said. “In response, Langford told us that she could have given the funds back, but that she did not do so because she needed the money to pay her debt to the Army.” (See Samoa News editions June 22 and June 23 for details on the Army debt.)

The entire paragraph 8 of McDonald’s declaration was “redacted” or blacked out, with no reasons given on the electronic court records for the redaction. However, a hint of the redacted information was provided by prosecutors in a separate court filing early this week, in response to provisions of the defense sentencing memorandum filed last week Friday.

“...in addition to gaining a personal benefit from the funds that Langford received from Rudin and his associated companies, Langford’s son received a job from Rudin,” according to prosecution, and referred to McDonald’s declaration on paragraph 8, which had been redacted.

“This suggests that Langford’s actions vis-à-vis Rudin were not limited to dealing with her own personal circumstances, and that she had the ability to obtain benefits from Rudin beyond her own specific need to pay off her debt to the Army,” they argued.

Prosecutors also quote parts of the defense’s sentencing memo, which states that "at the time of the offense, Ms. Langford lacked the ability to understand the wrongfulness of her conduct and was unable to exercise reason in making her decisions.”

According to prosecutors, the government does not dispute that the defendant was under a great amount of stress – after all, she had significant duties as a public official and was under great pressure to repay her debt to the Army.

“But the record does not support the conclusion that Langford was unable ‘to understand the wrongfulness of her conduct’,” they argued and noted that under the plea agreement, the defendant admitted to acting “corruptly and with the intent to be influenced.”

And as previously noted by the government, the actions that the defendant took during the offense conduct indicate her appreciation at that time of the wrongfulness of her conduct, said prosecutors.

This is because Langford “concealed the true nature and scope of [her] dealings with Rudin and NHHC from employees of the ASG and the Department of Labor" due to the fact that " the payments she received were prohibited”, they said.

Further, she knew the money ended up coming from NHHC, not Dearborne International; and that she had told Rudin that the money could not come from NHHC.

“[This] reflects her contemporaneous understanding that it was wrong for her to receive those funds,” said prosecutors, who argued that “the record does not support the conclusion that Langford failed to appreciate the wrongfulness of her conduct at the time.”

In closing, prosecutors again asked the court to sentence Langford to a term of imprisonment that should be no greater than 46 months, to be followed by a three-year term of supervised release. They also asked the court to order the defendant to pay $260,000 in restitution to ASG.

The defense had asked the court to sentence Langford to 12 months in jail, allowing her to serve at least some of that time in home detention or community confinement in order to allow her to begin making restitution (as ordered by the court) as soon as possible, and to allow her to care for and support her family, especially her young son.