Police lieutenant faces trial on tax fraud charges

A Honolulu police lieutenant is scheduled to stand trial in December on charges that he filed false state income tax returns for the years 2011-2016.

Eric Y.N. Yiu appeared Monday in state Circuit Court for his arraignment. His lawyer, Howard Luke, pleaded not guilty on his behalf to six counts of filing fraudulent tax returns. Circuit Judge Colette Garibaldi scheduled Yiu’s trial for the week of Dec. 17. Yiu, 54, remains free on $11,000 bail.

Officers from the Honolulu Police Department’s Professional Standards Office arrested Yiu on Wednesday after the state Attorney General Department filed charges against him in state court.

Each of the six charges carries a maximum three-year prison term and $100,000 fine. The Attorney General Department has also served notice that if Yiu is convicted of two or more counts, it might seek an enhanced sentence of six years in prison for each count.

The charges are the result of a joint investigation by HPD, the FBI, the Attorney General Department and the state Department of Taxation.

Yiu had been working in HPD’s Central Receiving Division on restricted duty since June. He has 29 years of service with the department.