Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The woman accused of stealing more than $110,000 from her former employer told investigators that she used the money to make her car payments, pay bills, give to her church, and pay for a family trip to Australia.

Jennifer Atafua was arrested last Thursday, pursuant to an arrest warrant from the court, which accompanied the affidavit of support and the complaint filed against her by the government.

She made her initial appearance in District Court last Friday. She was represented by private attorney Marcellus T. Uiagalelei, while prosecuting the case was Assistant Attorney General Christy Dunn.

Atafua is charged with stealing and embezzlement, both class C felonies, punishable by up to seven years in jail, a $5,000 fine, or both.

Judge Sunia established Atafua’s bond at $90,000.

If she posts bond, the court has ordered that she remain law abiding, not leave or attempt to leave the territory, and she has to surrender her travel documents to the government’s attorney. She is also ordered not to make any direct or indirect contact with the government’s witnesses.

Atafua’s preliminary examination (PX) is scheduled for Nov. 1 at 10:30a.m.

THE AFFIDAVIT

The government claims that on Sept. 3, 2018, the president of Forsgren’s Ltd, Inc., discovered that the company’s bank statements showed an account balance of $61,304.92, but the company’s records showed a balance of $247,525.84

When the company president discovered the discrepancy between the company’s records and the bank statements, he spoke to Atafua regarding the issue.

Atafua was an employee handling the company’s banking.

Atafua told the company president that the bank was having problems with their system and they were correcting it. She assured him that once the correction was made, she would provide the updated bank statement for him to review.

The next day, Atafua came clean and told the company president that she had took the funds for her personal use.

After hearing the confession, the company president transferred the matter to his office manager for an internal investigation. The company president wanted to see the company’s deposit records along with the bank statements so he could verify the difference between the two documents.

When investigators spoke to the owner of the company, she said she approached Atafua regarding the issue, and Atafua confessed that she used company funds.

According to the owner, Atafua admitted that she had been taking money from the company for over three years.

It was revealed during an internal investigation conducted by the office manager that a huge amount of money was missing from the company’s funds. Atafua told the office manager that she took $90,000 and used some of the missing money to pay store expenses and other things.

However, the manager’s internal investigation revealed that the total amount missing  was actually $118,910.30.

On Oct. 1, 2018, police interviewed Atafua.

She told the investigating officer that on Sept. 4, 2018, she told her employer that she was responsible for the difference in the account balances. According to her, she was responsible for counting the daily sales for the main store, Koko Bean, Sports Domain, Niuborn, and Carl’s Jr., and she was charged with keeping up with the daily expenses.

Atafua allegedly told police she started taking money in 2015 because she was behind on her car note, and she eventually started taking money every week, escalating to 2-3 times per week.

She said she believes the money she took totaled around $119,000.

On Sept. 20, 2018 Atafua wrote a letter to the company, which included a full confession, saying she takes full responsibility for her actions.