The managing partner of the CPA firm PKF Pacific Hawaii has been charged with 13 felony counts relating to losses of more than $500,000 from his firm.
Patrick H. Oki, managing partner at the Honolulu-based firm was charged Monday with theft in the first degree, money laundering, use of a computer in the commission of a separate crime, and forgery in the second degree, according to the office of Prosecuting Attorney Keith M. Kaneshiro.
Oki, 45, was arrested Sunday at Honolulu International Airport by agents from Immigration Customs Enforcement and members of the Honolulu Police Department after he arrived on a flight from South Korea.
He was arrested after a grand jury issued a bench warrant last week upon returning a secret indictment that was unsealed Monday morning.
Oki is a CPA and Certified Fraud Examiner. From Jan. 27, 2011, through Jan. 27, 2014, he allegedly perpetrated four separate and distinct fraudulent reimbursement schemes against PKF Pacific Hawaii LLP, which sustained losses of more than $500,000.
In each scheme, Oki falsely claimed he had personally incurred expenses in connection with services provided to clients. To further the schemes, Oki allegedly created fictitious persons, companies, contracts, IRS forms, invoices, financial documents, websites, and email addresses. According to prosecutors, he also made false entries in the firm’s books, forged signatures of fictitious persons, and deceived his partners, who reported the matter to law enforcement after they discovered that the “expenses” Oki claimed were personal and not work-related.
If convicted of the computer charge, Oki faces up to 20 years in prison with no possibility of probation.
“Honesty and integrity play vital roles in accounting because people rely on the information to make appropriate judgments,” Kaneshiro said in a statement. “When a senior partner engages in fraud and deceptive practices, they not only threaten the consumers of their work but the company they serve and every employee of that company. For that reason, they will be prosecuted.”
Oki’s arrest was the result of a year-long investigation by HPD’s Financial Crimes Detail. The case is being handled by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Christopher T. Van Marter, head of the prosecutor’s White Collar Crime Unit.
