Wife of ex-Olelo executive gets probation for embezzlement

The wife of Hanalei Aipoa­lani, the former Olelo Community Media human resources director who stole money from a federal program, was sentenced Friday to five years’ probation for her role in a conspiracy to embezzle $74,730, a portion of the $532,730 her husband took from AmeriCorps.

Judge Reggie Walton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia also required Angelita Aipoalani to be placed on home detention with location monitoring for 180 days rather than prison because of concern for the welfare of the couple’s three school-age children and on the government’s recommendation. She will be allowed to leave home for work, medical treatment and legal matters and to attend to her children’s needs and the like.

“I don’t want them to have to be punished because of what you and your husband did,” Walton said.

The judge also ordered Aipoalani to perform 180 hours of community service and transferred her supervision to the District of Hawaii.

“Did you think about the fact when you were doing this that if you and your husband got caught and both of you had to do prison time, that you would be leaving your children without a parent?” Walton asked Aipoa­lani during the sentencing hearing held via video teleconferencing from Hawaii.

“Yes,” she replied.

“And that wasn’t enough for you to say, ‘Hey, I’m not going to be doing this ‘cause I don’t want my children to be without parents’?” Walton continued.

“Yes, I thought of it, your honor,” Aipoalani said, her voice breaking with emotion. “I regret what I did.”

Aipoalani pleaded guilty April 1 to conspiring to embezzle $69,000 as payment for AmeriCorps work she did not perform and for applying for $11,000 to pay for her own educational loans and receiving $5,730.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie Goemaat said Aipoalani fraudulently masqueraded as an AmeriCorps volunteer on Hawaii island while employed on Oahu in another job. She could have received up to five years’ imprisonment, but under a plea agreement she was expected to be sentenced to six months to a year.

“You really should have to do some time,” Walton told the Hawaii woman. “I’m just appalled that you did what you did. You used money designed to help people in need … to live the high life, flying first class to the mainland, going to expensive restaurants, staying in expensive hotels. It’s unforgivable you would do something like this.”

Walton required Aipoalani to pay at least $50 a month toward the $74,730 in restitution, which is jointly owed by the couple, “since her husband will be locked up. To impose more will just punish the kids.”

The couple has twin girls entering the 11th grade and a son going into the seventh grade. The judge sentenced her husband June 30 to three years and 10 months in prison.

Hanalei Aipoalani was ordered to pay $532,730 in restitution to AmeriCorps and $3,159 to an AmeriCorps volunteer for terminating him early and taking the remainder of his stipend.

He pleaded guilty in March to embezzling funds from AmeriCorps from 2014 to 2019 while employed at Olelo, and to accepting a bribe in 2020 from Na Leo TV CEO Stacy Higa to help Higa apply for $845,000 in CARES Act grants for Na Leo Hawaii and another company.

At the time, Aipoalani served as the city’s CARES Act program administrator.

Goemaat told the judge that Angelita Aipoalani “stole more than $74,000 from AmeriCorps, which helps the most vulnerable members of society.”

“Those funds could have paid for nearly six years of a full-time AmeriCorps member’s service … while the legitimate AmeriCorps members were living off of the (annual) $12,500 stipends.”

Goemaat added that Aipoalani, unlike her husband, did not have a long list of criminal offenses, but that her sentence should serve as a general deterrence to anyone motivated to live a luxurious lifestyle at the expense of AmeriCorps and those served by it.

Aipoalani was “motivated by greed,” Goemaat said. “Few people have the luxury of spending tens of thousands of dollars on Hawaiian resorts and Hawaiian Disney timeshares and fancy restaurants, and she did it at the expense of the people of Hawaii who were supposed to be served by this money.”