Samoa GCA Member Testifies Against Fraudulent Colleagues

During a hearing at the Supreme Court of Samoa, a member of the country’s Gambling Control Authority has testified against three former authority employees who had used malicious means to steal money.

Tuivanu Testifies Against Former Colleagues

The full testimony was made by a principal IT officer at the GCA by the name Laau Tuivanu. In the statement during the trial of three former GCA employees, Tuivanu acknowledged the fraud of his former colleagues.

The three defendants are Silika Hala, Lui Feseetai and Talosaga Wales Amosa. All of them claimed that they have not done anything wrong and have not participated in the theft. The prosecution found out that Hala’s work at the GCA was to sell bonuses but sometimes those bonuses’ sales included suspicious methods that did not leave behind any track record. Despite that, Hala’s charges were eventually withdrawn.

This left only Feseetai and Amosa as defendants. The two used to work as ticket sellers for the Australian betting operator TMS Australia. In their positions, Feseetai and Amosa sold sports lottery tickets in Samoa. According to Tuivanu’s words, the duo was able to defraud the authority by cutting off the electricity while a ticket was being processed.

Tuivanu explained that this simple yet effective wrongdoing ended up preventing the system from registering the transaction as complete. She elaborated that by using this Feseetai and Amosa were able to sell transactions without having to process them.

The Defendants’ Lawyers Spoke Up

Feseetai’s lawyer, Steve Chan Chui, begged to disagree. Chui pointed out that Tuivanu cannot be sure whether Feseetai was the one using the machine on the day of the fraud.

 Amosa’s lawyer, Tanya Toailoa, also pointed out a similar thing. Toailoa first asked Tuivanu if it was possible to know who was using the device at that moment as many computers at the workplace allegedly use the same password and it isn’t possible to identify who’s responsible for the fraud.

However, Tuivanu easily answered this by pointing that during staff shortages employees from other divisions get brought in to operate the machines and when that happens, the supervisors get informed about who is where.

Toailoa was interested in whether it was possible that someone else had instead used the machine, even if it was assigned to Amosa. Tuivanu responded that such switches breach the office’s protocols and would usually be punished.

Lastly, when the lawyers tried to imply that there was actually a power outage and Amosa and Feseetai didn’t purposefully cut off the power, Tuivanu countered this claim by explaining that the computers are all equipped with power supplies that would allow them to work for a while even after an outage occurs.

Five other people who were involved in the fraud have already been fined. The lawsuit against Amosa and Feseetai continues.