A former clerk at the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai admitted Thursday in U.S. District Court that she stole more than $360,000 from the federal government.
Rowenalynn P. Yorkman, 48, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. She faces a maximum 20-year prison term at sentencing in April.
Under the terms of her plea deal, Yorkman agreed to a prison sentence of at least two years, to forfeit to the government $364,838 and to pay restitution in the same amount.
Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway does not have to abide by the terms of the plea agreement and can hand down a different sentence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Darren W.K. Ching told Mollway that Yorkman stole the money between January 2011 and January 2017 while working as a travel clerk for the Navy.
As a travel clerk, Yorkman processed travel claim reimbursements of government workers who traveled from PMRF. She tracked and reviewed the workers’ orders, reviewed and approved the workers’ claims for travel reimbursement and had the payments sent electronically to the workers’ bank accounts. She did not have authority to change travel claims or bank account information.
Yorkman admitted that she used a co-worker’s authorization to change and create bogus reimbursement claims and to reroute the payments to her own bank account.
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ON THE MOVE
>> Starn O’Toole Marcus & Fisher has announced that Lauren K.O. Kagawa is the firm’s newest transactional associate. Kagawa will practice in the areas of commercial transaction and real estate.
>> Carlsmith Ball has announced that Joy Miyasaki is the firm’s newest partner at its Honolulu office. She was previously the principal of Miyasaki LLC, a private law firm in Honolulu. Prior to having her own firm, Miyasaki served as a trial attorney for the IRS Office of Chief Counsel in New Jersey; a partner for Bergman, Horowitz & Reynolds, in New York and Connecticut; as well as an attorney for the Law Offices of Shuichi Miyasaki, in Honolulu.
>> Kamehameha Schools has announced that Haunani Fujimoto is director of leasing for the organization’s Commercial Real Estate Division portfolio of space-leased assets. She was previously part of KS’ CRED leadership team and continued to plan for and strategize around the commercial asset portfolio. Fujimoto has 17 years of experience as a real estate strategist.
