Sia plans to Troubled businessman Sukamto Sia, facing federal criminal charges including bank fraud, plans this morning to change his plea to guilty in exchange for a lesser punishment, sources said.
plead guilty
Change is part of a deal for
a lesser penalty, sources sayBy Tim Ruel
truel@starbulletin.comSia was scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge David A. Ezra at 11 a.m. His trial on charges of bankruptcy fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and other counts was supposed to start next month.
The FBI arrested Sia in August last year after the Indonesian businessman was indicted by a federal grand jury. Sia was later indicted two more times and was facing a total of 21 charges. Sia had pleaded innocent to all counts. It is unclear what charges the former Honolulu investor would plead guilty to or how much jail time or fines he may face.
It is also unclear how the guilty plea will affect the case against Sia's two younger brothers and girlfriend Kelly Randall, who were charged in May with being his accomplices. Mark Recktenwald, an assistant U.S. Attorney assigned to the case, confirmed that Sia would plead guilty, but declined comment about the specifics of Sia's change of plea. Sia's attorney David Minkin also declined comment.
Randall and Sia's two brothers, Suwardi Sukamto and Sumitro Sukamto, are named in 13 federal counts for allegedly helping Sia hide millions of dollars in assets from creditors and obtain illegal loans. Randall had not been charged in the previous indictments against Sia in exchange for her testimony before an October 2000 grand jury that returned Sia's second indictment, federal court records show. Randall's deal was later rescinded.
Sia, 42, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Hawaii in November 1998, a month after his arrest on charges of bouncing checks at Las Vegas casinos. At the time, Sia claimed he had $9.3 million in assets and more than $296 million in debts. Chapter 11, also known as reorganization bankruptcy, is used to restructure debt without the threat of lawsuits. The case was converted to Chapter 7 liquidation in 1999 and the trustee overseeing the bankruptcy accused Sia of hiding funds. Earlier this year, U.S. Bankruptcy Court auctioned a large portion of Sia's wine collection that he was said to have hidden.
The federal government's case against Sia took a turn in recent months, when assistant U.S. Attorney Omer Poirier unexpectedly left the case and was replaced by assistant U.S. attorneys Craig Nakamura and Recktenwald. After the change, the government asked the court last month to extend the beginning of the trial until February of next year. Ezra refused to grant the extension and pushed the trial back one month to Nov. 21.
Some of the charges pending against Sia relate to his tenure as former chairman and owner of the failed Bank of Honolulu. The government said that Sia double-pledged his stock in the bank to get two separate $40 million loans from banks in Asia.
Sia is alleged to have accomplished this by telling the bank's board of directors that he lost one set of shares. Sia's defense attorney William McCorriston has denied the claim. The Bank of Honolulu was seized last year by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which sold the bank's assets to San Francisco's Bank of the Orient.
Originally jailed at Oahu Community Correctional Center, Sia was later allowed by the court to reside, under guard, at the Waikiki Landmark luxury condominium, a building Sia developed a decade ago.