A former office manager of landscaping company in Hawaii was arrested yesterday after being indicted by an Oahu grand jury on 311 counts.
From 2008 to 2014, 49-year-old Tamila Alcoran allegedly embezzled $1.3 million from the landscaping company. She was hired as an office manager in 2008 and proceeded to use the owner’s personal information to open fraudulent credit cards.
She charged hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise and services. She also allegedly diverted funds from the company’s bank account to pay for the charges.
Prosecutors assert that Alcoran additionally sold off stock through the owner’s online investment account, forged company checks and applied for about a dozen fraudulent loans.
Her actions caused the company to go bankrupt, the owner’s credit to be ruined and the owner was sued by lenders when the loans were not repaid.
“The crimes in this case nearly destroyed the victim who spent 40 years building up his architecture and landscape business,” Chris Van Marter, deputy prosecutor, told KHON2.
“It completely destroyed his credit, all of his credit cards were cancelled. He can’t get a credit card now.”
If Alcoran is convicted, she faces 20 years in prison. The prosecution is working hard to see that the victims receive justice.
“Today’s indictment represents one of the worst cases of embezzlement against a small business that’s been prosecuted in recent memory,” said prosecuting attorney Keith Kaneshiro.
To make matters worse, this isn’t the first time Alcoran has stolen money from an organization. In 2003, she stole $40,000 from the youth soccer organization AYSO when she became treasurer of the Kaneohe region.
She admitted to forging seven checks and depositing them into the checking account for her family’s insulation business.
“When my father got sick, I panicked and I did the wrong thing, and I wish I could take it back,” Alcoran said during her sentencing in 2006.
Alcoran faced up to 10 years in prison but instead the judge gave her five years of probation and 300 hours of community service. She had to pay $6,000 in fines.
“I still have to live with this,” Alcoran said after receiving her sentence. “I live in the community every day, and when I walk, I see how people look at me and I have to deal with that, so it’s going to happen like that for the rest of my life.”
Alcoran got a fresh start when she was hired at the landscaping company, but she quickly began embezzling money on a much larger scale.
Van Marter, who prosecuted Alcoarn’s case in 2006, is seeking a strong punishment for the woman who ruined a family’s livelihood with her scheme.
“She certainly is a danger to employers and especially employers who put her in a position of trust and access to money,” Van Marter said. “She is extremely manipulative and as a person who knows financial matters and technology issues very well.”
Both Van Marter and the president of the AYSO believed Alcoran should have spent time in jail after her first offense.
“We felt that would be appropriate to deter her from further large scale financial crime,” Van Marter said. “To our disappointment the court set and started a probation with no jail and within two years of being placed on probation she is re-offending on a much larger scale in this case.”