The former manager of Pacific Shipping Services (PSS) charged on allegations of misappropriating for his personal use close to $400,000 belonging to PSS, has in a plea agreement with the government admitted to embezzling $200,000 from the company.

Lepuai Allen Mayer was charged with embezzlement, forgery and stealing which are all class C felonies, but in the plea deal he signed with the Attorney General’s office, the defendant pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement, and in return the government moved to dismiss the remaining charges.

Embezzlement is a class C felony punishable by up to seven years in jail, a fine of up to $50,000, a fine equal to twice the amount gained from the commission of said crime up to $20,000 — or both fine and jail time.

According to the plea agreement, Lepuia'i admitted that between July 2012 and October  2013,while employed as manager for Pacific Shipping Services he collected payments from customers and deposited them in a Bank of Hawaii account that he had set up under the company name, with himself as the sole signer on the account.

The defendant admitted that he used over $200,000 from the BoH account for his personal use. The plea deal says that when the BoH account was uncovered, it had a negative balance of $425.

According to the government’s case, Mayer fraudulently opened the BoH account using a forged authorization letter from PSS with a signature of the company’s President/Director.

According to bank statements, a total of $268,363.80 was deposited into the BoH account from the time it was first opened in July 2, 2012 until December 19, 2013 when the account was closed with a negative balance of $425.40.

According to the government’s case, on November 15, 2013 the defendant signed a debt promissory note and repayment agreement, which he did not dispute and agreed to pay back $350,000 dollars that he had taken from PSS.

The government’s case further claims that during the investigation it was found that defendant would collect cash from sailors of the Lady Naomi and then would keep the money and write checks to the stores for supplies.

Check payments signed by the defendant were also made out to stores for personal use.

Court filings say that Mayer also used the money to purchase caskets for his family members who had passed on, that he paid his life insurance and insurance for his vehicles, paid for his family eating out and staying at hotels, paid his ASPA bills and also bought material from CBT.

The government’s case claims the defendant bought three vehicles from ASCO motors — an FJ Cruiser, Toyota Tacoma and a Sequoia, however he still owes $11,000+ for the Sequoia; and that he also bought an Echo from Police Officer Pepe Mann. The defendant also wrote checks in his wife’s name for cash in the amount of $7,685.

The defendant is alleged to have also purchased a bus for $25,000. It’s also alleged that he bought two rings using checks from PSS at Treasure Island Jewelers, and his wife confirmed that she had received two rings for Christmas last year.

Court filings say the defendant also went shopping for sailors on purse seiners, and he collected cash in the amount of $9,000+ and used the PSS checks to pay for the shopping at the stores.

Chief Justice Michael Kruse accepted the plea agreement and scheduled sentencing on January 8, 2015.