21 Jun 2012

14-month jail term over American Samoa theft conspiracy

10:49 am on 21 June 2012

The former executive director of the American Samoa Special Services Commission has been sentenced to 14 months in prison for conspiracy to steal.

Mine S. Pase was sentenced in Washington DC for stealing more than 325,000 US dollars in AmeriCorps grant funds awarded to the Commission.

Pase has also been ordered to pay the full sum in restitution.

Pase admitted that she arranged for herself, her relatives, commissioners, and Commission staff to receive the funds to which they were not lawfully entitled.

Pase is the younger sister of the Lieutenant Governor Faoa Aitofele Sunia.