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The city’s former Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act program administrator pleaded guilty Friday to federal charges, including accepting a bribe while working for the city and embezzling more than $527,000 from AmeriCorps, a Department of Justice news release said.
Hanalei Aipoalani, 42, of Waianae, is facing a likely recommended sentence of up to seven years and three months imprisonment, according to the news release.
Senior U.S. District Judge of the District of Columbia Reggie Walton scheduled sentencing for June 24.
Aipoalani, who has run for political office a number of times, was hired in August to serve as the City and County of Honolulu’s Department of Community Service’s CARES program administrator and was responsible for administering Coronavirus Relief Fund programs.
He agreed to accept a financial benefit from someone who filed two fraudulent applications for CARES Act Funds, the release said. In exchange, Aipoalani agreed to influence the approval of the grant applications.
From December 2014 through May 2019, he embezzled more than $527,000 from a nonprofit that hosted an AmeriCorps program, a federally funded network of national service programs. He submitted false claims for payments to AmeriCorps members and directed payments into his own bank accounts, according to federal prosecutors. He also created fake invoices from nonprofits for reimbursement by AmeriCorps.
As a part of Aipoalani’s embezzlement scheme, he used at least nine inactive or former AmeriCorps members’ names without their knowledge or consent to fraudulently claim living allowances and other payments, which he diverted to his own use, the release said.
He also admitted to conspiring with his wife, Angelita, to enroll her as an AmeriCorps member. However, she did not perform any service activities. Aipoalani also caused a second nonprofit to pay his wife more than $69,000 without her doing any work. Aipoalani also admitted to scheming to fraudulently obtain AmeriCorps education awards for his wife.
Angelita Aipoalani was separately charged with conspiring to embezzle from AmeriCorps.
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