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A federal judge sentenced the former executive director of the Painting and Decorating Contractors Association of Hawaii to three and a half years in prison Friday for embezzling $1.4 million from the trade association and an affiliated charitable trust.
U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright also sentenced Raymond Hiroshi Fujii, 68, of Kailua, to a concurrent three-year term for lying on his income tax returns by not reporting the money he stole as income.
Fujii pleaded guilty in January. As part of his sentences, he must repay the trade association the $1,483,800 he stole, minus the $564,915 he already paid from the sale of his home. Fujii will also have to pay the IRS $315,829 in back taxes.
Fujii remains free on bond but must turn himself in to begin his sentence by June 24.
He admitted he stole the money over a 17-year span, from 1997 to 2014, by forging or fraudulently getting the signatures of trade association and trust fund directors on checks to his management company, then depositing the checks into his personal bank account. Fujii concealed his theft by presenting board members false financial statements that did not reflect the deductions for the unauthorized checks.
Members of the Painting and Decorating Contractors Association are signatory employers of International Union of Painters and Allied Trades Local 1791, AFL-CIO. As executive director, Fujii represented the association in collective bargaining agreement negotiations, and promoted and secured union jobs for association members.
The Painting Industry of Hawaii Trade Promotion and Charity Fund was established in a collective bargaining agreement between the employers and union to promote the painting industry and make charitable contributions on behalf of the painting industry and its employees. Employers make contributions to the charity fund based on a fixed amount for each hour a union member works.