Former official at shelter pleads not guilty to theft

The former program director accused of stealing more than $500,000 from a nonprofit organization that runs a Kalaeloa transitional shelter for homeless people pleaded not guilty to six counts of felony theft in state court Friday.

Laura Pitolo, 37, is scheduled to stand trial in June. She remains free on $50,000 bail.

The state Office of the Public Defender represented Pitolo at Friday’s arraignment.

Pitolo was the first person charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from Wai­anae Community Outreach.

The second is the organization’s former executive director, Sophina Placencia. The state attorney general’s office filed felony theft charges Monday against the 32-year-old Placencia for allegedly stealing about $200,000 from the group.

Placencia, 32, is scheduled to appear in state court for her arraignment Monday. She also remains free after posting $50,000 bail.

According to state court records, others, including at least one other former employee, could also face theft charges.

On Tuesday the organization, which changed its name last year to Keala­hou West Oahu, filed a lawsuit in state court against its former accountant Back Office Solutions for allegedly stealing $192,500. The lawsuit accuses one company employee of pocketing cash from the sale of organization furniture and another employee of drafting and forging a check to herself and using the group’s money to purchase tickets on Air New Zealand. The group also filed a lawsuit against Placencia this week. Back Office Solutions could not be reached for comment because its phone was disconnected.

It was Placencia who first alerted authorities of the possible theft of money. Placencia told the Hono­lulu Police Department in 2010 that Pitolo was fired after the former program director had allegedly stolen from the organization. At that time the organization was aware of the loss of about $69,000.

Police said after Placencia filed the theft report, the detective assigned to the case called her twice requesting additional information, included canceled checks, which she never provided.

In 2013 the organization learned police had not filed criminal charges against Pitolo and that the statute of limitations was running out. So the group filed a state lawsuit against Pitolo for the loss of $762,046 of operational and client trust funds.

About a month later the state Department of Human Services initiated an administrative investigation into the alleged misuse of state money that the department contractually awarded to the organization, according to court records. The organization receives hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to run the One­lau­ena Shelter and provide other services.

During the investigation Placencia provided records alleging thefts by Pitolo, including checks Pitolo wrote to her father, her sister and a co-worker. According to court records, the Department of Human Services special investigator said when he examined bank, business and financial records, he discovered that Placencia and her mother, Kanani Bula­wan, who preceded her daughter as executive director and founder, may have stolen thousands of dollars from the organization.

According to state court records, the administrative investigation revealed that Pitolo made about $300,000 in ATM cash withdrawals from the group’s accounts from December 2007 through May 2010 and wrote checks totaling $160,000 to her father, Pulouoleola Salausa.

Bulawan died in October and Salausa died in 2011.

The investigation also revealed that Placencia used her company debit card to purchase trips to the mainland and neighbor islands in 2009 to 2013, meals at restaurants and nightclubs and to buy a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, court records said. Authorities seized the motorcycle from Placencia’s Wai­anae home in February 2014.

The special investigator also said Placencia transferred into her personal credit union accounts $107,000 from a fundraising account and $34,000 from a payroll account, according to court records. He said Bula­wan transferred $12,000 of fundraising money into her personal credit union account in 2010.

During the period when Placencia and Pitolo are alleged to have stolen money from the organization, organization attorney Christy Ho said services to clients continued uninterrupted, even though employees sometimes didn’t get their paychecks.

Placencia’s charges accuse her of stealing from the group and the state by making unauthorized ATM cash withdrawals and debit card transactions and by writing unauthorized checks to herself and her mother.

Pitolo’s criminal charges accuse her of stealing from the organization and the state through ATM cash withdrawals and debit card transactions and by writing checks to herself, her father, a co-worker and another person.