Honolulu Man Sentenced to Prison for Embezzling from Family Trust

HONOLULU—Scott Kamiya, 34, was sentenced to serve 33 months in federal prison today by United States District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi for embezzling money from a local family trust. Kamiya, a Honolulu resident who also worked as a realtor and served on the board of directors of the Honolulu Board of Realtors, must also pay $284,219.31 in restitution. He had pled guilty to one count of bank fraud in July 2011.

United States Attorney Florence T. Nakakuni said that, according to information produced in court, Kamiya worked as a bookkeeper for a family trust between 2005 and 2010. As the bookkeeper for the trust, Kamiya’s duties included preparing checks drawn on the trust’s checking accounts, and making deposits into the accounts. Court documents indicate that Kamiya took money from the trust accounts by (1) altering checks to make them payable to himself or his business entities, (2) depositing checks made payable to the trust into his own personal or business accounts, by forging endorsements of the trustee, and (3) initiating online transfers to pay his own personal and business expenses. An FBI analysis determined that Kamiya misappropriated money at least 107 times and obtained a total of $284,000 from the trust accounts.

At sentencing, Judge Kobayashi expressed concern that Kamiya’s acts were premeditated, repetitive, and abused the trust placed in him by others. The court ordered Kamiya to self surrender on February 14, 2012 at a mainland facility to be designated by the Bureau of Prisons.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry Tong.