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A federal grand jury indicted a 57-year-old Kaneohe woman Wednesday on a charge of attempting to embezzle more than $200,000 from her employer.
Corinne "Nani" Cabral is accused of operating a "ghost payroll" scheme involving money at the Hana Group, a security guard contracting firm that does work for Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and other clients. Cabral was a payroll clerk for the company from January 2005 to April 2011, and was responsible for entering timesheet and payroll data into the company computer system.
An FBI investigation found that Cabral placed two people on the payroll who were not employed by the Hana Group, kept two terminated Hana employees on the payroll after they left the company and directed the checks from these "salaries" into accounts under her name, that of her minor granddaughter and that of a friend.
Court documents said the company issued 124 paychecks and direct deposits into the accounts of the four "ghost" payrollers, which ultimately were controlled by Cabral.
Cabral was not arrested. But under an arrangement reached between her attorney and the government, she is expected to surrender to the FBI sometime next week before her initial appearance in federal court on three counts of wire fraud and one count of mail fraud. Each of the four counts carries a maximum prison term of 20 years.