Luatua Held on Bail of $100,000

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The former executive Director of the Retirement Fund Office Luatua Filisouaiga Taafua is now behind bars on $100,000 bail.

He is facing about 20 charges for allegedly misappropriating more than $100,000 of Retirement Fund money while he was director of the government pension plan.

He was served an arrest warrant when he came to District Court this morning, for his initial appearance.

Luatua was taken to the Territorial Correctional Facility after he went before District Court Judge Elvis Patea this morning.

He’s represented by Attorney Gwen Tauiliili Langkilde.

The prosecutor is Deputy Attorney General Mitzie Jessop Taase.

It’s been about two months since the Commissioner of Public Safety forwarded the investigation report of a criminal probe on the former head of the Retirement Fund to the Attorney General’s Office.

He was also the target of a forensic audit by an independent auditor from Utah contracted by the Retirement Fund Board of Directors to look into allegations of unauthorized spending by Luatua.

The audit report documented evidence that Luatua may have misappropriated about $112,000 that belonged to the Fund for his personal use.

Luatua had been placed on leave with pay for several months while the investigation was underway.  In January the Retirement Fund board moved to terminate his services.

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