Jill Marzo Clark waited two years to look the bookkeeper who stole nearly $400,000 from her surfing prodigy son, Clay Marzo, in the eyes at her sentencing Monday in U.S. District Court in Honolulu.

“Your last text to me was, ‘I love you Jill,’ ” Clark recalled saying in a phone interview Thursday. “Is this really how you love someone? By stealing from their pocket?”

Felicidad Rivera, 51, of Makawao was sentenced to 35 months in jail after pleading guilty to 13 counts of wire fraud in February. She has until Aug. 21 to turn herself in to begin serving her sentence.

“This has been two years of thousands and thousands of dollars in attorney fees, and I’m not going to get even half of what I’ve spent,” Clark said. “But I wanted to look her in the eyes, and I wanted my son to know that I didn’t just roll over and let someone do this to us.”

U.S. District Senior Judge Susan Oki Mollway ordered Rivera to repay her victims $373,182 and to undergo three years of supervised release after she completes her jail term. However, Rivera, an immigrant in the United States legally, will likely get deported to the Philippines when she leaves jail because her crimes qualify as aggravated theft by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the family’s attorney, Joy Yanagida.

According to the federal indictment, Rivera wrote herself 193 checks from January 2010 to October 2015 totaling more than $330,000 from the accounts of Marzo and his mother. Rivera also paid more than $75,000 of her own Chase credit card charges from Marzo’s account in 87 transactions from May 2010 to September 2015.

Rivera wrote several large checks to family members, according to a U.S. Bankruptcy Court complaint the Marzo family filed separately.

Rivera transferred the sum of $33,100.75 to one of her two sons, Anthony, to assist him with rent, food, utilities, gas, living expenses and miscellaneous expenses. She paid $19,773.35 to her daughter’s boyfriend Zachary Trotter to cover his car loan and pay for his automobile insurance.

Rivera also transferred $10,262.89 to her daughter, Tiara, for living expenses, and paid $8,888.98 to cover a car loan and other debts owed by her husband, Jimmy. She also paid $4,735.38 to cover a car loan for her other son, Joey.

Rivera concealed her transactions through phony entries in QuickBooks ledgers that she was maintaining, court documents said. Clark and her son had difficulties monitoring Rivera’s activities due to disabilities from which they both suffer.

Marzo has Asperger’s syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism, and his mother has severe dyslexia.

Marzo, 28, lost his home and life savings, which he had built from years of surfing competitions and endorsements. He also was left $30,000 in debt with his mother having to take care of him.

“I’ve been struggling to get back on my feet, but we managed to survive,” said Clark, who also lost some money. “Attorneys are expensive and they’re worth every dime, but to do justice you have to pay for it.”

According to a U.S. Bankruptcy Court complaint the family filed separately, Rivera was first hired in 2008 to handle the bookkeeping for Marzo’s company, CMarzo Inc. She was later hired by Clark to do the bookkeeping for her property management business, The Mothership LLC.

In 2015, Clark discovered charges to her Macy’s card for designer bags and items she had not purchased, the complaint said. She learned the purchases were shipped to Rivera’s address.

Clark considered Rivera a trusted friend who attended her son’s high school graduation and was alongside him when he was diagnosed with Asperger’s. She said Rivera also knew she struggled with numbers due to her dyslexia.

“She saw us as targets and she took it,” Clark said. “And she bought Michael Kors bags. How pathetic.”

Yanagida said Rivera’s home will be in foreclosure and sold to pay off the banks and creditors. She said the house’s estimated value is over $500,000 and the amount recovered by her clients will depend on the mortgage and sale.

“We are hopeful that when the house is sold that they get something out of that,” Yanagida said. “I was worried that the (Rivera) family might trash the house just before she goes in to jail, but I read the federal order that really inhibits them from doing that.”

Clark thanked Yanagida and the U.S. attorney general’s office for their work. She said she does not know if Rivera would have ever been arrested if she did not pursue legal action after seeing the suspicious charges.

Yanagida said Maui Economic Opportunity Inc. hired Rivera as a bookkeeper after she was initially arrested in October.

Clark said that her son may never be able to own a home due to Rivera’s embezzlement, and rents an apartment in West Maui. Marzo continues to surf under sponsors and is competing in the Rip Curl Cup at Bali’s Padang Padang Beach. He reached the finals at last year’s competition.

Marzo, who has been described as “one of the best surfers in the world” by famed surfer Kelly Slater, only makes a quarter of what he previously generated due to the industry collapsing in the late 2000s. Marzo also does not compete in many competitions due to his condition and makes the majority of his money in sponsorships, which are hard to come by in the world of “free surfing.”

“He travels once or twice a year now because the budget is so tight,” Clark said. “Surfing doesn’t make nearly as much money as when he was younger. He’s living very simply, but still surfing.”

Clark said her son probably has another five years left to surf for a living, but has a movie coming out next year. The film, “This is Clay,” is eight months into filming and follows Marzo and other surfers such as Slater, Kalani Robb and Bruce Irons as they surf in locations around the world.

The film plans to premiere at the U.S. Open of Surfing.

Clark said that she tries to look at the positives from the theft and that she has become a better and stronger businesswoman. She has installed dyslexia software on her computer, and her daughter has taken an interest to the judicial system.

“I think now it’s going to be really great, it’s just getting through this,” she said. “People asked me why didn’t I start a GoFundMe for Clay, but I told them that we’re just going to work hard and Clay is going to be fine. Maybe he doesn’t have a house and secure future now, but something better will come along.

“My father used to tell me what doesn’t kill you, will make you stronger. It’s kind of true.”

* Chris Sugidono can be reached at csugidono@mauinews.com.