A federal judge sentenced the former CEO of the credit union for TheBus employees to 15 months in prison Thursday for making false credit card payments and stealing a car that had been turned in for repossession.
Senior Judge Helen Gillmor also ordered Dona Takushi to pay $78,138 in restitution and turn herself in on Oct. 2.
Takushi was supervisor at the Oahu Transit Services Employees Federal Credit Union. OTS operates TheBus.
Takushi told the judge she was living beyond her means and "was trying to compensate for my failures and shortcomings."
She pleaded guilty in May to two counts of embezzlement and one count of false credit union entries.
Court documents said that between 2010 and 2012, Takushi inputted six false payments totaling $40,970 to her and a family member’s credit card accounts.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia Lie said Takushi also made 153 false entries into the credit union’s books from 2007 to 2012. The entries advanced the due dates of delinquent loans and enabled her and an acquaintance to get more loans.
Lie said Takushi also falsely charged off a Subaru Forester turned in by a member with a delinquent loan and transferred its title to her and her daughter.
Luis Navarro, vice chairman of the credit union, said Takushi was one of only four employees at the credit union. He said that when investigators were upstairs looking into the case, Takushi was downstairs shredding evidence, and also went to an off-site storage area to dispose of more evidence. He said her actions devastated the credit union.
Takushi is the last OTSEFCU employee to be sentenced in the case.
Earlier this month former teller Jenny Nishida was sentenced to 13 months in prison for stealing more than $350,000 by making 122 false payment entries to her and her family members’ credit card accounts.
In August former loan officer Nicole Cheung was sentenced to 20 days in jail for making $16,732 worth of false payment entries to credit card accounts.
