Sia sentenced to 36 months,
faces deportation

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By Tim Ruel and Leila Fujimori
truel@starbulletin.com
lfujimori@starbulletin.com

Former Honolulu investor Sukamto Sia was sentenced today to three years in prison, five years supervised release and ordered to pay $3.12 million in restitution.

Sia pleaded guilty in October to two counts of bankruptcy fraud and one count of scheming to defraud the Bank of Honolulu, a federally insured bank. After serving his sentence in federal prison, Sia will be turned over to federal immigration officials and faces deportation.

U.S. District Court Judge David Ezra accepted what he called an unusual plea agreement worked out by the government and defense attorneys that reduced Sia's maximum possible sentence from 71 months to 40 months. Ezra did not impose a fine, saying restitution was more important.

Sia has already paid more than $2 million in restitution. He still owes $1 million to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and $25,000 to the bankruptcy trustee.

As part of his plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office, Sia faced between 20 months and 40 months in federal prison and a fine of up to $1.5 million on charges of bankruptcy fraud and wire fraud.

Charges against Sia's fiancee, Kelly Randall, and his brother, Sumitro Sukamto, were dropped.

Sia's lawyers asked Ezra for probation so their client could return to work and repay his creditors.

They had asked to reduce the sentencing guideline on the argument that Sia has shown good behavior since he was arrested in August 2000. The federal government opposed any request to lower Sia's sentence.

Two weeks ago, Ezra revoked Sia's $1.5 million bail because Sia lied to Los Angeles police during a February domestic incident involving Randall.

Sia told police that he had not been arrested before. Sia, who had been living with Randall in a $4.5 million estate in Bel Air, Calif., has since been awaiting his sentence at the federal detention center near Honolulu Airport.

Several of Sia's friends have written letters in support of reducing his sentence, including University of Hawaii football coach June Jones. Using university letterhead, Jones wrote that Sia could be rehabilitated by giving lectures at UH, rather than go to prison.

UH officially criticized the letter yesterday.

"It was inappropriate to use university letterhead or to suggest that Mr. Sia might give instructional lectures at UH," said Paul Costello, UH vice president for external affairs.