After Embezzling To Fund 'Luxurious Lifestyle,' Former Nonprofit Exec Begs For Leniency [View all]
Federal prosecutors want to send a former Honolulu nonprofit leader to prison for five and a half years for embezzling federal funds from Olelo Community Media and trying to fleece the city out of federal COVID-19 relief funds.
Hanalei Aipoalani has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $500,000 from the nonprofit media companys AmeriCorps program and agreeing to take a bribe to steer CARES Act money to the CEO of Hawaii islands public access TV station, according to court records.
Prosecutors asked the court to sentence Aipoalani to 66 months of imprisonment, three years of supervised release, mandatory restitution and a forfeiture money judgment.
To affect his frauds, the Defendant abused multiple positions of trust and treated public funds ear-marked for the most vulnerable and desperate Americans as his own personal piggy bank, Assistant U.S. Attorney Channing Phillips wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed Friday.
Read more: https://www.civilbeat.org/2021/06/after-embezzling-to-fund-luxurious-lifestyle-former-nonprofit-exec-begs-for-leniency/