The federal prosecutor has agreed to give Henry Calucag Jr., the man at the center of a murder case and two missing-person cases, a plea deal that will result in Calucag spending no more time behind bars than what he is already serving in state prison.
Calucag, 62, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court Monday to one count of wire fraud.
As part of the plea deal, he has also agreed to accept a 16-year, 10-month prison term and forfeit $1,096,064 when he is sentenced in March.
The deal calls for Calucag to serve his federal sentence at the same time as a 30-year state prison term he is already serving. However, should U.S. District Judge David Ezra refuse to approve the plea agreement, the deal is off.
A federal grand jury charged Calucag and his girlfriend, Debra Anagaran, in 2009 with multiple counts of wire fraud, money laundering, persuading others to travel overseas to defraud them and mail fraud in connection with three of Calucag’s acquaintances.
Arthur S. Young disappeared after traveling to the Philippines in 1990, Douglas Ho disappeared after traveling to the Philippines in 2004 and John Elwin was killed in the Philippines in 2006. All three men went to the Philippines to meet with Calucag after they had given him money for what they thought were business deals or a condominium purchase, according to the indictment and friends and family members of the three men.
The charge to which Calucag pleaded guilty involves $246,149 that Elwin paid him for the purchase of a condominium in Quezon City.
Assistant U.S. Attorney William Shipley said Calucag did not own a condominium in Quezon City to sell to Elwin, nor did he intend to purchase one for him.
Two weeks after Elwin went to the Philippines to take possession of a condominium he thought he owned, his body was found on the roadside in a province outside Manila. His body had gunshot wounds to the back and the back of the head.
No one has been charged in Elwin’s death.
In 2007 a state jury found Calucag guilty of charges that he forged Elwin’s signature on documents transferring title to some property on Kauai to himself and that he used Elwin’s credit cards to make purchases on the Internet after Elwin’s death.
Circuit Judge Michael Town sentenced Calucag to 30 years in prison and ordered him to serve at least 10 years of the prison term before he is eligible for parole.
The Hawaii Paroling Authority increased Calucag’s minimum to 23 years and four months. As a result, Calucag will not be eligible for parole until December 2029.
The forfeiture amount to which Calucag agreed is the sum of all the money he fraudulently collected from Young, Ho and Elwin. It does not include Young’s Peter Street home in St. Louis Heights, of which Calucag took possession after Young disappeared.
Shipley said he cannot require Calucag to forfeit the Peter Street property because Anagaran has title to it.
Anagaran is scheduled to go to trial in April.
