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A federal judge said Monday a 44-year-old woman had built the trust of more than 200 fellow Native Hawaiians in carrying out fraud.
Mahealani Ventura-Oliver was “very educated about native Hawaiian culture and history” and “sold herself as wanting to help native Hawaiians,” said U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright.
Instead, “she was defrauding Native Hawaiians day after day,” he said, bilking them out of a total of $468,000.
Seabright sentenced Ventura-Oliver to six and a half years in federal prison. He also ordered her to pay $424,534.68 in restitution to the victims.
