Schemes result in 10-year sentence

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

A Nanakuli woman who was a key figure in the so-called "cargo container scam" that bilked hundreds of local investors out of millions of dollars in the early 1980s was sentenced yesterday to up to 10 years in prison for cheating three O'ahu residents in new schemes.

Mabel Maria solicited money from friends and relatives to invest in fictitious cargo containers in 1979. Advertiser library photo • May 3, 2002

City Deputy Prosecutor Randal Lee said that in one case, Maria took $3,000 raised by friends and family of a man arrested on a weapons charge and told those people that she would contribute another $6,000 to post bail for him, but she never did.

In a second case, Maria took $12,000 from an uncle under the guise of making mortgage payments for him but failed to do so.

In the third case, Maria attempted to sell a home owned by her son, which was on Hawaiian Home Lands. Maria took and kept $3,400 from a woman who wanted to buy the home, although the woman is not Hawaiian and would not have qualified to buy the house, Lee said.

Maria was sentenced yesterday on charges that included two counts of second-degree theft, one count of first-degree theft and two counts of money laundering.

The "cargo container scam" dates to 1979 when Maria solicited money from friends and relatives to invest in fictitious cargo containers. Maria told investors the containers held surplus federal goods and the investment would return as much as 20 to 1.

Before it was over, police said that Maria had collected millions of dollars. When the scheme was stopped in 1981, police confiscated more than 60 cars, trucks and motorcycles along with jewelry, furnishings and other expensive items bought by Maria.

Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.