Forger gets 10 years for embezzling $800k from 4 Oahu businesses

A man who used to handle the money from the electronic slot machines of an Asian organized crime family in Los Angeles started serving a 10-year prison term Tuesday for stealing more than $800,000 from four small Oahu businesses.

Justintuan M. Ha, 47, pleaded no contest in May to stealing $866,055 by forging 81 checks of the four affiliated businesses for which he performed accounting services.

State Circuit Judge Rom Trader sentenced Ha to concurrent 10- and five-year prison terms for theft and forgery Tuesday and ordered him taken into custody to immediately begin serving his sentence. The Hawaii Paroling Authority will decide how much time Ha will have to spend behind bars before he is eligible for parole. Ha also must pay back the money he stole.

Austin Hirayama is the owner of three of the businesses — AMH Inc., WCSC LLC and Kailua Bay Investors LLC — and half-owner of Building Maintenance Solutions Inc. He told Trader that Ha has made providing for his family, which includes a son headed to college and another going to private grammar school, more difficult.

“The financial impact of this is just so significant. Not only that, the reputation of my small property management company (AMH) in the commercial real estate community has a black dot on it,” Hirayama said.

Randy Norfleet is the other half-owner of Building Maintenance Solutions. He told Trader that Ha put him out of business and left him angry and depressed.

“It’s like a death in the family. It’s like a divorce. It’s like, I can’t put into words. It’s like I’ve been kicked in the head to the point where I got physically sick,” Norfleet said.

Ha told Trader he apologizes and takes full responsibility for his actions, accepts whatever punishment he hands down and will do his best to pay back whatever he can.

“Your honor, I had a very bad gambling problem. I’m a compulsive gambler. I have been trying to get help and treatment for that,” Ha said.

His lawyer Thomas Otake had filed papers asking Trader to give Ha the opportunity to avoid conviction by deferring his no-contest pleas. But at Tuesday’s hearing Otake instead asked Trader to sentence Ha to probation.

He said Ha came clean to his employers even before he was confronted by anyone, then reported his crimes to Honolulu police. Then, after he was charged, he pleaded no contest without asking for anything in exchange, Otake said.

Deputy Prosecutor Chris Van Marter told Trader that the amount of money Ha stole from 2013 to 2017 is too high to warrant probation. He also said Ha has huge debts, no assets and has not made any effort to repay any of the money he stole.

Trader told Ha that even though he probably will benefit from it, probation is not an adequate sentence for his crimes. He commended Ha for coming forward and taking responsibility for what he did and suggested that might help him get parole.

Ha pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in 2001 to managing an illegal gambling business and was later sentenced to three years of probation.