Former Department of Education business manager on Big Island charged with stealing $7,000

Karie Luana Klein, a former Hawaiʻi Department of Education complex area business manager on the Big Island, was arrested Feb. 23 after being charged by the Department of the Attorney General’s Special Investigation and Prosecution Division with three felony theft counts. 

Klein was charged on Feb. 16 for allegedly falsifying Department of Education mileage and parking forms and using purchase orders and a “P-Card” to steal more than $7,000 from the department. 

Each count of felony theft is punishable by up to five years in prison.

The case is State v. Klein, 3CPC-23-0000151.  Klein’s arraignment is set for Feb. 27 at the Circuit Court of the Third Circuit, Hilo Division. 

In 2022, the Hawaiʻi Legislature appropriated substantial funds for the creation of Special Investigation and Prosecution Division, which has a dual mandate of combatting public corruption and human trafficking in the State of Hawaiʻi.

“Government officials who abuse the public trust will be prosecuted and held accountable for their crimes,” said Hawai’i Attorney General Anne Lopez.