Man gets prison time for money laundering

A former Marine living and working on Hawaii island is going to jail for four months for helping a friend launder $150,000 the friend collected in bribes from 2006 to 2008 while working as a contracting officer in Iraq for the U.S. Marine Corps.

Francisco Mungia III must also repay the government the $30,000 he collected as his 20 percent cut and spend eight months on electronically monitored home confinement after his jail term.

U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway said she imposed a jail term lower than the 18-24 months suggested by advisory federal court sentencing guidelines and less than the six months recommended by the federal prosecutor in recognition of Mungia’s substantial assistance to investigators and his continued service to others.

After the money laundering was over, Mungia obtained a nursing degree and got a job as a registered nurse at Kona Community Hospital.

Mollway said she found the circumstances of Mungia’s crime egregious.

"I find it particularly reprehensible for someone to be profiting from American troops engaged in battle," she said.

Still, she said she wanted to fashion a sentence that would give Mungia an opportunity to keep his job.

His lawyer, Myles Breiner, said Mungia will have to report his conviction to state regulators and could still lose his job if the state takes away his professional license.

Mungia apologized to his fellow Marines and the people with whom he served.

The Marine Corps honorably discharged him in 2000.

His friend, identified in court documents as Person A, a Marine Corps sergeant deployed as a warranted contracting officer to Camp Fallujah, has yet to be charged.

Mungia admitted collecting bribe money from two contracting companies operating in Camp Fallujah through wire transfers to his bank accounts and on at least one occasion traveling to New York from San Diego to collect the money in cash.

After taking his 20 percent cut, Mungia gave the rest to his friend through personal checks, Western Union money transfers and cash from ATM withdrawals, all in increments of less than $10,000 to evade reporting requirements, federal prosecutor Mark Pletcher said.