Woman gets 33-month term for stealing $863K from landfill operator

A 55-year-old woman who used to work at the West Hawaii Sanitary Landfill in Waikoloa is going to prison for stealing $862,722 from her former employer.

A federal judge sentenced Donna J. Alms to 33 months in prison Wednesday for wire fraud and money laundering.

U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson also ordered Alms to repay her former employer, Waste Management of Hawaii Inc., the money she stole.

Alms has six weeks to turn herself in to begin serving her sentence.

She was an operations specialist when she stole the money between April 2010 and December 2014 through an elaborate scheme involving a vendor who provided temporary laborers, including “litter pickers,” who kept the landfill clear of trash. She altered 247 invoices to get Waste Management to pay the vendor more than it was owed and collected the surplus by putting herself on the vendor’s payroll.

The government says minus health insurance premiums and other standard deductions, Alms collected approximately $680,000 in kickbacks from the $862,722.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lawrence Tong told Watson that except for the medical expenses of Alms’ son, investigators were not able to track where all of the stolen money went.

Alms’ son has been dependent on his mother since getting injured in a motorcycle accident in 2008.

Waste Management of Hawaii also operates the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill on Oahu.