A federal judge said Monday a 44-year-old woman had built the trust of more than 200 fellow Native Hawaiians in carrying out fraud.
Mahealani Ventura-Oliver was "very educated about Native Hawaiian culture and history" and "sold herself as wanting to help Native Hawaiians," said U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright.
Instead, "she was defrauding Native Hawaiians day after day," he said, bilking them out of a total of $468,000.
Seabright sentenced Ventura-Oliver to 6 1⁄2 years in federal prison. He also ordered her to pay $424,534.68 in restitution to the victims.
Under the guise of a sovereignty group, Ventura-Oliver promised to help financially troubled Maui residents get out of debt.
"These were desperate people," Seabright said, "and particularly vulnerable on the eves of their mortgage foreclosures."
Many of the victims are seniors and lost their homes, which some shared with their extended families. Because of the stress and strain and losing their homes, some families had to split, and couples divorced, Seabright said.
A jury Oct. 21 found Ventura-Oliver and Pilialoha Teves guilty of conspiracy and mail fraud offenses tied to a scheme by a group known as the Hawaiiloa Foundation.
Ventura-Oliver was found guilty of conspiring to use fake financial instruments, 15 counts of mail fraud, one count of money laundering, one count of conspiring to submit false tax returns seeking $1.5 million in refunds from the IRS, and submitting a false tax return with her estranged husband, John Oliver, who was also indicted in connection with the scheme. He pleaded guilty and testified at trial.
Ventura-Oliver used public-access television and seminars to teach about Hawaiian history and property rights.
She tailored an older mainland scheme to fit the Maui community, the judge said.
Seabright said Ventura-Oliver was the most culpable, or at least equally culpable with her husband, in the scheme.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lawrence Tong said, "She was the leader. She was out there. She grew it."
The Hawaiiloa Foundation collected about $468,000 from more than 200 individuals seeking mortgage, credit card and other debt elimination. Some had been on the verge of foreclosure, but a few had moderate incomes and were doing well financially.
The scheme ran from 2008 to 2011.
In return for a fee of between $1,500 and $10,000, the group promised to teach participants how to use "bonds" and other legal documents to pay off debts by drawing on fictional accounts created for each individual, supposedly at birth, the case’s indictment said.
Ventura-Oliver plans to appeal the verdict, but asked the judge for leniency.
She faced a maximum sentence of five years on each of the conspiracy offenses, the false tax claim offense, 20 years on each of the 15 mail fraud offenses and up to 10 years on the money laundering offense.
She told the judge she is the victim of an abusive, controlling husband but has changed and become more assertive in the past year at the Federal Detention Center.
Ventura-Oliver, though tearful at times, was composed and spoke quite easily to the judge as she shared her jail experiences and how controlling her husband was.
But Assistance U.S. Attorney Lawrence Tong told the judge that Ventura-Oliver’s speech lacked any evidence of remorse, and that she hasn’t admitted she was responsible for defrauding those 200 victims during her year in jail.
If she had, "she would have shed a few tears for the victims," he said.
Tong said he is pleased that Ventura-Oliver, "the ringleader," and four others involved in this scheme have been convicted and will be incarcerated for a substantial amount of time.
