Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The former manager of Pacific Shipping Services (PSS) convicted by the High Court in 2015 for embezzling $200,000 from the company is back in court this week after he was arrested by police on the weekend for embezzlement and stealing.

Lepuia’i Allen Mayer made his initial appearance before District Court Judge, Acting Associate Justice Elvis P. Patea this Monday.

Mayer is charged with one count of embezzlement and one count of stealing, both class C felonies, punishable by a term of imprisonment of 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.

Bail is set at $35,000.

If he posts bond, Mayer is ordered to comply with all of the conditions of his release including no direct or indirect contact with the victim or his family at any way.

THE CASE

On the morning of Nov. 9, 2020, a man (whose name was mentioned in the court affidavit) walked into Central Police Station in Fagatogo to file a complaint against Lepuia’i Allen Mayer for money he owed since August 2020.

According to the victim’s statement to investigators, he was talking to Mayer in the beginning of August 2020 that he wanted to purchase a car off-island because he knows that Mayer is experienced with making loans through the Navy Federal Credit Union and with purchasing cars from off-island to here in American Samoa.

According to the victim’s statement, Mayer agreed to make a loan for the victim at Navy Federal Credit Union where Mayer prepared all the loan paperwork and gave it to the victim and the victim signed all the paperwork and returned it to Mayer.

Mayer promised the victim that he would work very hard to push things forward and to make sure he gets his car within two months. He also promised the victim that there was nothing to worry about because he know the process and he’s familiar with it. The victim told investigators he trusted Mayer because he had helped other people to order their cars and bring them to the territory without any problems.

After the victim received his check from Navy Federal Credit Union in the amount of $33,050, he signed his check and gave it to Mayer to order his truck. After receiving the check from the victim for his car, Mayer told the victim that he was going to receive his car on Sept. 26-28, 2020.

However, after Sept. 30, the victim did not receive his car as promised by Mayer. He visited Mayer and asked him about his vehicle, and Mayer told him that it was due to the delay of shipping vessels to American Samoa from the U.S.

However, he told the victim that he should receive his vehicle on Oct. 18, but after the month of October, the victim still had not received his vehicle.

On Nov. 2, 2020, the victim visited Mayer again, and informed him about the situation and that he wanted his money back. The victim further stated to Mayer that it’s been over 3 months since he’s been waiting for his car and it seems like all of his promises are not true.

Mayer told the victim that he’s going to pay back his money in the amount of $34.000 within the next four days. After four days, Nov. 6th, Mayer failed to keep his promise and the victim never received his money back from the defendant.

That is when the victim tried to contact the defendant via telephone as well as by cell phone. He also visited the defendant’s work place but the defendant was never to be found. After months of waiting for his money to be paid back by the defendant, the victim decided to go to the police for help.

Until this point and time, the defendant still has not made any payment to the victim, but the victim further stated to investigators that Mayer was planning to leave the territory on the 8th of January 2021.

BACKGROUND

Mayer was sentenced to 5 years probation after being convicted of embezzlement pursuant to a plea deal with the government. As a condition of the plea agreement between parties, the court dismissed the remaining charges of forgery and stealing.

As a condition of his probated sentence handed down by the court in 2015, Mayer was ordered to served a period of detention of 20 months at the Territorial Correctional Facility (TCF) and pay restitution in the amount of $200,000. It’s not clear at this time if the defendant paid the full amount of restitution as ordered by the court.

The circumstances of what happened was that, between July 2012 and October  2013, while employed as manager for Pacific Shipping Services he collected payments from customers and deposited them in a Bank of Hawaii account that he had set up under the company name, with himself as the sole signer on the account.

It was discovered that Mayer fraudulently opened the BoH account using a forged authorization letter from PSS with a signature of the company’s President/Director.

The defendant admitted that he used over $200,000 from the BoH account for his personal use. The plea deal says that when the BoH account was uncovered, it had a negative balance of $425.

The government’s case further claimed that during the investigation it was found that defendant would collect cash from sailors of the Lady Naomi and then would keep the money and write checks to the stores for supplies.

Court filings say the defendant also went shopping for sailors on purse seiners, and he collected cash in the amount of $9,000+ and used the PSS checks to pay for the shopping at the stores.

On November 15, 2013 the defendant signed a debt promissory note and repayment agreement, which he did not dispute and agreed to pay back $350,000 dollars that he had taken from PSS.