04/02/2023

Kauai Woman Sentenced to 17 Years in Prison for Wire Fraud Schemes and Aggravated Identity Theft

United States Attorney's Office District of Hawaii

HONOLULU –Leihinahina Sullivan, 51, of Lihue, Kauai, was sentenced today before United States District Judge J. Michael Seabright to 17 years in prison and three years of supervised release for three counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft related to multiple long-running fraudulent schemes. Sullivan previously pleaded guilty to these offenses in July 2021. She is also required to pay $3,396,035.15 in restitution to various victims and public and private entities and subject to a penalty of $2,012,41.92 in forfeiture for the criminal proceeds of her offenses. In sentencing Sullivan, Judge Seabright described the “staggering scope, length, and complexity” of her criminal conduct.

According to court documents and information presented in court, Sullivan perpetrated three fraud schemes beginning as early as January 2011, through at least July 2019. Sullivan devised a tax fraud scheme involving over $2.8 million in tax loss, mostly in the form of fraudulent tax refunds from the IRS and the State of Hawaii that she and the other individuals were not entitled to receive. She filed hundreds of false tax returns for herself and for others. The false federal and state tax returns included fictitious expenses, claims for credits, and other items Sullivan knew were false when made. Sullivan did not review these tax returns with the individuals before she filed the tax returns in their names and forged their signatures on many of the returns.

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