American Samoa Officials Arrested

[Ghost in the Machine]

American Samoa Officials Arrested
Published: 9/10/07, 11:25 PM EDT

PAGO PAGO, American Samoa (AP) - The lieutenant governor and a territorial senator of American Samoa were charged with fraud, bribery and obstruction in a federal indictment unsealed Monday in Washington.

The arrests of Lt. Gov. Ipulasi Sunia, 64, and Sen. Tini Lam Yuen, 56, were announced in a Justice Department release from Washington, where the grand jury had met. American Samoa is a U.S. territory without a federal court.

Lt. Gov. Ipulasi Aitofele Sunia appeared Monday before a federal magistrate, while Sen. Tini Lam Yuen surrendered to the FBI in Los Angeles and later appeared in federal court there, FBI spokesman Brandon Simpson said. Both were released on a $50,000 unsecured bond.

According to the indictments, Sunia, who was territorial treasurer at the time, and Lam Yuen engaged in a scheme to avoid a competitive bidding process by conspiring to split a large project for school furniture construction among companies they owned and a third company owned by another official.

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