Gov's office takes legal action to remove TBAS President

The Office of the Financial Institutions and the Attorney General’s office are proceeding to remove the President of the Territorial Bank of American Samoa, David Buehler.

This was confirmed by the Governor’s Chief of Staff Loa Tauapa’i Tuimavave Laupola, in response to KVKZ News questions.

This follows the official communication from the TBAS board to the Governor's office they will not proceed with the recommendation to remove Mr Buehler as President, and for the Banks Board to take action to address the failure of leadership at TBAS that caused the bank to be unable to timely file its audited Financial and Profit and Loss Statement as required under local law.

Loa told KVKZ news today the Governor’s office received the official communication on Monday. He said the OFI and the AG’s office is pursuing this matter in accordance with the American Samoa Code.

As reported earlier, the governor noted the American Samoa Government owns the bank; the lack of an audited financial statement from TBAS impacts ASG’s government audit, its obligations to bond investors, and potentially American Samoa’s credit rating.

Under the Code, the Chief Executive Officer of TBAS is responsible for effectively and efficiently managing the bank.

Failure to meet the requirements of the law and failure to understand or be concerned about the potential impact on ASG is neither effective nor efficient management.

As such, Governor Lemanu called on removing Buehler, citing the potential effects of this failure on ASG.