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A Wailuku woman who embezzled at least $59,000 from her former employer to support her opioid addiction was sentenced in federal court on Oahu last week to one year and one day in prison.
Dayna Gerard-Soliven was also sentenced to five years of supervised release following her prison term. She will need to pay restitution of $49,801.97 and a special assessment of $100.
Judge Susan Oki Mollway ordered Gerard-Soliven to turn herself in to authorities on July 13.
Gerard-Soliven worked as an office manager and bookkeeper for Mountain Slope Water in Kahului, when she took cash withdrawals from the company, along with fraudulently created Mountain Slope Water checks, and also created paychecks in order to obtain money from the company, court documents show. She also forged signatures and used a signature stamp without authorization. The incidents occurred between July 5, 2016 through May 25, 2018.
According to a criminal complaint on March 15, 2022, Gerard-Soliven was charged with 58 counts of bank fraud and 52 counts of aggravated identity theft. On Feb. 8 she pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud in accordance with a plea agreement.
"Her opioid addiction clouded her judgment and actions so badly that she began stealing from her employer in order to buy more painkillers," according to a sentencing memorandum from her federal public defender, Salina Kanai.
Her addiction began when she injured her right ankle in a random slip and fall on New Year's Eve on Dec. 31, 2007. To manage her pain she was started on Percocet in 2008 and also turned to marijuana the year after her surgery.
"Dayna quickly became heavily addicted, ingesting up to nine pills per day during her peak usage between 2016 and 2018," Kanai wrote.
Kanai also said that people who were "formerly law-abiding" and "upstanding" as Gerard-Soliven had been before becoming addicted to opioids, "care little about the consequences of anything -- family, jobs, personal safety -- when the body so compulsively craves opiates to feel good or simply just normal."
Kanai pointed to how her client is one of the "affected Americans" of the opioid crisis.
Kanai said Gerard-Soliven, to her credit, deposited $10,000 borrowed from her sister into Mountain Slope Water's account on May 15, 2018.
The money did not make the company whole, but Kanai said it speaks to Gerard-Soliven's "core character" and her low likelihood of recidivism.
"Dayna is well on her way to recovery," Kanai said. "The chances of her recidivating strongly decrease so long as she stays sober, coupled with the support of her family."
* Staff Writer Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.