A former Hilo credit union employee accused of bilking the financial institution of hundreds of thousands of dollars will go to court with an attorney funded by taxpayers.
Angela Domingo will be represented by Craig Jerome, an assistant federal defender, according to the federal courts website.
Domingo, former Hilo operations manager at CU Hawaii Federal Credit Union, is with charged embezzling at least $250,000 from the credit union between approximately March 24, 2014, and Oct. 31, 2017, but authorities think the actual amount taken is significantly higher.
According to the complaint, filed June 18 in U.S. District Court in Honolulu, a co-worker reported seeing Domingo pocket a $100 bill from the credit union’s vault on Oct. 31, 2017.
Domingo was immediately put on leave, and a cash audit revealed about $637,000 missing.
In addition, over the alleged period between the credit union’s previous cash audit, March 20, 2014, and Oct. 31, 2017, about $810,000 in cash was deposited into her account and joint accounts she shared with relatives, the document states.
Domingo talked to U.S. Secret Service agents at her Keaau home and at the Pahoa police station on Nov. 7, 2018, according to the complaint, and admitted she took cash from CU Hawaii between 50 and 100 times, but didn’t know how much cash was involved.
The document states Domingo told agents she felt underpaid and unappreciated and knew that taking the money was wrong. Investigators said she told them taking the cash “felt like an addiction,” and it was “stupid,” because she didn’t need to do it.
According to the complaint, Domingo said she used some of the money to finance a family trip to Florida and bought lunches, after-work rounds of drinks and Halloween costumes for co-workers. She also allegedly said the money was spent on “unnecessary items.”
Domingo told the feds none of her co-workers were involved in the thefts, according to the document.
When agents referred to $250,000 as the minimum alleged to be stolen, according to the complaint, Domingo laughed and replied, “I know it’s not funny. I’m sorry, it’s like stupid funny.”
The Tribune-Herald reached out to the office of Kenji Price, U.S. District Attorney for Hawaii, and James Takamine, CEO of CU Hawaii Federal Credit Union, but neither immediately responded.
Price told KHON-TV in Honolulu that prosecutions such as this one “put bank employees who steal funds, instead of safeguarding them, on notice there are consequences for this kind of criminal conduct.”
Takamine told the TV news outlet the credit union’s members’ accounts are insured by the National Credit Union Administration and are unaffected.
He said CU Hawaii has “elevated our internal controls to keep this from happening again,” and the indictment of Domingo “brings closure to this very troubling and unfortunate incident.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.