An employee of the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (PX) in Tafuna faces 50 counts of stealing and embezzlement.
It’s alleged that between September 2 and October 16 of 2025 Sophia Esau as the PX employee responsible for managing all of the PX’s deposit transactions took cash sales and used it for her personal benefit. According to court documents the total cash that the PX lost was over $117,000.
It’s alleged that Esau collected cash and check sales for the PX daily but did not deposit all of the cash. According to court documents she employed a deposit manipulation scheme to conceal the misappropriations. Missing deposits from prior dates were replaced with funds collected on subsequent dates. Original deposit slips from earlier dates were retrieved, however funds were deposited under those prior dates and current deposit slips were retained until the following deposit cycle.
The scheme was reported to the Department of Public Safety by AAFES officials from off island who were in the territory in October of last year.
According to the court documents, Esau admitted to misappropriating the AAFES cash sales deposits for personal use beginning in March of 2023. She cited financial hardship following her father’s diagnosis with a brain tumor as the initial reason. The Government of Samoa covered her father’s medical treatment in New Zealand but after he passed, it’s alleged that she used PX funds to pay for repatriating his body to Samoa.
The court documents further state that she admitted to using $9,300 in PX funds to pay for airfares for 11 family members, car rental and food and accommodations.
The defendant told investigators that in 2024 she took $15,000 from PX deposit funds to pay a personal loan with Navy Federal. She refinanced that loan and took out more than $20,000 to replenish the PX funds. She also took out $17,000 from PX funds to pay back what she withdrew from her 401 K, then borrowed $20,000 from her 401 K and deposited in into the PX funds.
The missing funds accumulated faster than she could replenish them, and she was unable to conceal the discrepancies.
The court documents say that she fabricated a story claiming that her vehicle had been broken into and that the deposit funds had been stolen. Its alleged that she discarded the deposit slips and checks for the missing deposits in a dumpster across from Pacific Mini Mart in Tafuna.
Bail for Esau is set at $80,000. She is represented by Thomas Jones while Assistant Attorney General Tala Marcellus Uiagalelei is the prosecutor.
