U.S. Postal Service officials were able to track down the fired office manager of a Honolulu law firm wanted for embezzling $300,000 from his former employer because the man turned in change-of-address notices every time he moved.

“;They were able to track his movements from one postal delivery location to another until they eventually located him in New York City,”; said Chris Van Marter, deputy city prosecutor.

Federal, state and New York City law enforcement officers arrested Nigel J. Salmingo at a midtown Manhattan address Thursday. Salmingo is wanted in Hawaii on a $500,000 state court bench warrant. He remains in custody awaiting extradition.

An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment April 28 charging Salmingo, a Honolulu socialite, with multiple counts of first- and second-degree theft, money laundering and forgery.

A state judge ordered the indictment sealed until Salmingo's arrest.

The indictment says Salmingo stole from Winer Meheula & Devens from July 2007 to March 2009.

Bill Meheula said those are the dates Salmingo worked as the law firm's office manager. He said he and his law partners fired Salmingo after they discovered he stole from the company. He said Salmingo did not steal any client trust funds, and insurance covered most of the loss.

“;We thought we could trust Mr. Salmingo but we were wrong,”; Meheula said in a written statement.

“;And it just goes to show that this can happen to anyone especially where the criminal is willing to go to great lengths to deceptively conceal his theft,”; he said.

Van Marter said Salmingo was able to conceal his fraud for 18 months because he made false entries in the company's books and had the law firm's bank and credit card statements sent to his Punahou Street home.

The company discovered Salmingo's deception when he was on vacation off-island in March 2009, Van Marter said, when the company asked its former office manager, who had hired Salmingo, to look at its books.

He said the law firm first discovered nearly $9,000 missing from the petty cash fund, then learned that Salmingo forged company checks to buy a car and pay off his personal credit card bills, made unauthorized charges and took cash advances on the law partners' company credit cards and opened new credit card accounts in the company's name.

Salmingo spent much of the money at bars, clubs, restaurants and social events, Van Marter said.

“;Basically the money was being used to fund a lifestyle of somebody who was well off and well connected,”; he said.

Salmingo also bought consumer electronics like computers, MP3 players and software.