Hilo Woman Accused of Embezzling $628K from Charter School

A Hilo woman has been accused of embezzling thousands of dollars from a public charter school in Pāhoa and now faces a federal wire fraud charge.

According to court documents filed in US District Court on Jan. 27, 2020, Kelaukila Estabilio stole over $628,000 dollars from Kua O Ka Lā Public Charter School between December 2012 and January 2019.

Estabilio worked at the school from 2006 to January 2019 where she was employed as the school’s financial officer and maintained the school’s bank accounts. Court documents indicate the money was used for her family’s personal expenses, including paying off credit cards.

“To conceal her embezzlement, Estabilio made materially false representations by falsifying the school’s Quickbook financial records, purposely did not follow the school’s financial procedures and policies that she had helped establish and did not disclose her spending of the school’s funds on personal expenses to anyone who worked at the school,” court documents indicate.

The campus of Kua O Ka La was destroyed in the 2018 Kīlauea eruption. The school is up and running at a new location in Hilo.