Ex-accountant charged with embezzling $5.7M from Hawaii nonprofit

A former accountant for a nonprofit organization that provides services to children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities stole more than $5.7 million from the organization over 10 years and spent the money on lavish vacations, gambling, cars, home renovations and mortgages on at least four homes, Deputy Prosecutor Chris Van Marter said in state court Thursday.

An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment charging Lola Jean Amorin, 69, with multiple counts of theft from The Arc in Hawaii, a 63-year-old nonprofit with 200 employees who operate three adult day care centers on Oahu. Amorin was also charged with computer fraud and money laundering. The indictment alleges that Amorin committed the crimes between December 2006 and March of this year.

Acting Circuit Judge Clarence Pacarro issued a bench warrant for Amorin’s arrest and set her bail at $3 million.

Honolulu police arrested Amorin at her Laie home, and, as of Thursday night, she had not posted bail.

The computer fraud crimes are the most serious of the charges and carry a 20-year prison term with no possibility for probation.

Honolulu Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro said in a written statement, “Besides the shocking amount of money that was taken, what makes this case particularly egregious is the fact that the stolen money was intended to benefit children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.”

News of the indictment spread quickly.

“How can anybody do that?” asked Laurie Kahiapo, whose 26-year-old son has been an Arc client for the past three years, “It totally breaks my heart.”

Peggy Proffitt said the news left her in shock and disbelief.

“How can anybody do that to an organization that takes care of people that nobody else much cares about?” she asked.

Proffitt said her 52-year-old son has been an Arc client since 1984 and she has served on the organization’s board of directors.

Both women said they donate whatever they can to The Arc because they know how hard people work to get funding for the organization.

Van Marter told Pacarro that Amorin worked more than 30 years for The Arc as a senior accountant. He said the organization discovered discrepancies during a routine audit of its 2016 records, investigated the discrepancies and found that Amorin had stolen from the organization. They then turned the matter over to Honolulu police. That was in March.

“HPD (then) used more than 40 search warrants and obtained the records from numerous banks, credit unions, credit card issuers, mortgage lenders, a casino, a credit bureau and obtained evidence from Amorin’s work computer and email account,” Van Marter said.

He said Honolulu police discovered two schemes Amorin used to steal money from The Arc. One involved Hawaii Employers’ Mutual Insurance Company, or HEMIC, The Arc’s insurer.

Instead of issuing checks to HEMIC, as indicated in the organization’s ledger, Van Marter said Amorin issued checks from The Arc’s First Hawaiian Bank account for cash, forged the signatures of the authorized signatories and converted the cash into cashier’s checks made payable to her credit union. Amorin then deposited the cashier’s checks into her Hawaii Central Federal Credit Union account.

Van Marter said the second scheme involved Amorin issuing checks drawn on The Arc’s bank account to her credit card companies and again, forging the necessary signatures. He said Amorin wrote unauthorized checks to more than a dozen credit card issuers to pay off her credit card bills.

“She used part of the stolen money to pay more than $1 million in credit card bills,” Van Marter said.

The Arc in Hawaii said in a written statement that it has implemented new procedures and financial controls that it believes will prevent similar crimes in the future.

“We want to assure our families and the community that this behavior does not reflect the hard work our 200 employees perform every day for our residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and we remain committed to serving them as we have for the past 63 years,” the organization said in the written statement.

Van Marter told Pacarro that the investigation into Amorin’s activities is ongoing and there could be more charges. But he said based on the checks police have confirmed were forged and negotiated without authorization, the amount of loss to The Arc is $5,777,147.

He said Amorin used some of the stolen money to pay off mortgages on three properties on Oahu, one in Las Vegas and on a time share on the Big Island, which she later sold for a profit. He said Amorin also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in Las Vegas, “including tens upon tens of thousands of dollars dropped in gaming machines.”

The Arc in Hawaii is the state chapter of The Arc of the United States, the largest national organization devoted solely to working on behalf of people with intellectual disabilities.