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Maui businessman Lloyd Y. Kimura had eight years tacked on to a roughly 12-year prison term Thursday in connection with running a Ponzi scheme that posed as a loan and financing company.
Kimura, 61, was given a 20-year sentence by state Circuit Court Judge Joseph Cardoza on Maui.
The sentencing was punishment on state charges of defrauding investors and filing false or misleading statements with state regulators of financial institutions.
Kimura in July was sentenced to 11 years and eight months on federal charges of mail and bank fraud and for stealing from his employees’ pension benefits plans.
Both sentences will run concurrently and be served in federal prison. State and federal judges also ordered Kimura to pay $8 million in restitution.
Kimura, a certified public accountant and brother of recently retired Hawaii County Prosecutor Jay Kimura, owned Maui Industrial Loan and Finance Co., Lloyd Y. Kimura CPA Inc. and Wailuku Tire Center. He pleaded guilty to the state and federal charges in January. Separate cases were pursued because of the seriousness of the offenses and the impact on the community.
In the federal case about 50 victims were identified, including some who lost their life savings and children’s college funds in the scheme.
Prosecutors in the federal case said Kimura persuaded friends and clients to invest with him or Maui Industrial Loan under the pretense that he was going to use their money to issue high-interest loans to others. In return he promised them 8 percent and 12 percent rates of return. In realty Kimura used money from new investors to pay off earlier ones, and even sent them false financial statements, according to court records.
Maui Industrial Loan filed bankruptcy in January 2010 after Kimura was ordered to stop taking deposits and investment money from customers. Restitution is envisioned to be paid from whatever assets can be identified and recovered in bankruptcy court.
In the bankruptcy case, Maui Industrial Loan reported having assets totaling $7 million and debts of $16.2 million.
