A Samoan woman, Siitu Sanerivi, has been charged with six counts of promoting prostitution in American Samoa.
If found guilty, she could be jailed for up to 15 years.
She has been accused along with her de facto husband to have hired young Samoan women to work as prostitutes at their bar.
Bail has been set at 75-thousand US dollars and she was asked to surrender her travel documents but she was found to be in American Samoa illegally.
Her de facto husband, Wei Li Fang, who is Chinese, is now being held in Samoa after escaping to New Zealand.
