A Honolulu nonprofit is suing its longtime bookkeeper, claiming she embezzled nearly $7 million.
The Arc in Hawaii, which provides services to children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, filed suit Monday against Lola Jean Amorin, its bookkeeper for 30 years, and her husband, Albert.
An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment in September charging Amorin, 69, with multiple counts of theft, money laundering and computer fraud. At that time Deputy Prosecutor Chris Van Marter said he could prove that Amorin stole $5,777,147 from the organization between December 2006 and March of this year.
Earlier this month Van Marter went back to the grand jury, which returned a new indictment that added more charges, including for tax evasion, against Amorin and her husband. It also accuses Amorin of stealing $6,969,165 from The Arc between 1998 and this year.
When officials from the organization confronted Amorin during a financial audit in March, she admitted she stole the money and even signed a handwritten confession, according to the lawsuit.
“It’s all me, everything the auditors are looking for. … It’s all me. … I took the money,” she said, the suit alleges.
At the time, The Arc was undergoing an annual audit that had turned up discrepancies between what was listed in the general ledger and payments made to HEMIC, the organization’s workers’ compensation insurance provider.
Amorin remains in custody at Oahu Community Correctional Center unable to post $3 million bail. Her criminal defense lawyer, Scott Collins, could not be reached for comment.
