Patrick Oki, the former managing partner at the accounting firm of PKF Pacific Hawaii LLP, entered a not guilty plea in Circuit Court Thursday to 13 felony counts of first-degree theft; money laundering; use of a computer in the commission of a separate crime, and second-degree forgery.

Oki is accused of stealing more than $500,000 from his firm.

Circuit Court Judge Karen Anh rejected a motion by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Christopher Van Marter that Oki be held without bail because four of his former partners fear retaliation. 

Oki remains free after posting bail of $250,000 after he was arrested at Honolulu Airport Sunday after arriving home from South Korea. He was ordered to surrender his passport by Friday.

Van Marter said the former partners — Lawrence Chew, Deneen Nakashima, Dwayne Takeno and Trisha Nomura — are named as complainants in the indictment that was issued in secret by the grand jury April 1 and unsealed on Monday. 

Van Marter said the four were concerned there might be ramifications because they turned Oki into police.

Ahn ordered Oki not to have any contact with his former partners, who left the company last year.

According to the indictment Oki falsely claimed he had personally incurred expenses in connection with services provided to clients. Oki allegedly created fictitious persons, companies, contracts, IRS forms, invoices, financial documents, websites, and e-mail addresses and made false entries in the firm’s books, forged signatures of fictitious persons, and deceived his partners, the indictment said.

Oki forged signatures using fictitious names “Hide Tanaka” and “Gerald Woodard,” according to the indictment.

“We have no evidence that their clients were harmed. This was strictly a matter between Mr. Oki and his partners,” Van Marter said.

Van Marter wouldn’t say how Oki spent the money, except that it was used to support a “lifestyle” that was characterized as “consistent with high spending.”

Anh set trial for the week of June 15 before Judge Colette  Garibaldi.

Oki still has an ownership interest in the accounting firm but no long plays an active role in its management, said Reg Baker, the chairman of the company’s executive committee.

Oki, a certified fraud examiner, also served as the treasurer of Ahahui Koa Anuenue, the nonprofit fundraising arm of University of Hawaii athletics, and is a past president of the University of Hawaii Alumni Association. He was also an executive board member of the Boy Scouts of America Aloha Council.

In a statement, Ahahui Koa Anuenue said Oki’s position as treasurer was advisory and he had no direct control over the organization’s funds.