Pascua-Suyat

The Maui News

A former bookkeeper for Ki-Hana Nursery, who stole more than $1.3 million from her employer over a seven-year period, was sentenced Monday to 3 1/2 years in prison.

Thelma Pascua-Suyat, 64, of Kahului also must serve three years of supervised release and pay $1,167,895.47 in restitution. She was sentenced in U.S. District Court by Judge Susan Oki Mollway.

She pleaded guilty to wire fraud on May 15.

From 2008 to 2016, Pascua-Suyat used her position as the bookkeeper for Ki-Hana Nursery in Kihei to falsify electronic bookkeeping records and steal more than $1.3 million from the nursery, based on court documents and information presented in court, said Hawaii U.S. Attorney Kenji M. Price.

Pascua-Suyat’s scheme to defraud Ki-Hana Nursery, which lasted over seven years, involved using the nursery funds to pay over $1 million in personal credit card debt and to make over $65,000 in payments on her home mortgage.

She transferred funds from the nursery’s bank account in hundreds of transactions, according to documents.

Pascua-Suyat had access to the nursery’s commercial bank account, business credit card and bookkeeping software while she was employed there as a professional bookkeeper from about 2004 until her employment was terminated in January 2016.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson.