Posted on: Thursday, May 1, 2003

'Cargo container' convict sentenced in new scams

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

A Nanakuli woman involved in the so-called "cargo container scam" that bilked hundreds of local investors out of millions of dollars in the 1980s was sentenced yesterday to a maximum 10 years in prison for cheating members of a Wai'anae church in one scheme and three brothers in another.

Because of her previous convictions, Circuit Judge Michael Town ordered that Mabel Elena Maria, 49, serve at least three years and four months of the 10-year term before being considered for parole.

City Deputy Prosecutor Randal Lee said Maria took approximately $260,000 from church members, promising she would invest it in mutual funds and return more than $1 million to the church.

In the second case, Maria told three men she had acquired a tractor and other equipment through a foreclosure sale and offered it for sale at far less than fair market value. The brothers gave her about $200,000, but never received the equipment, Lee said.

He said Maria apologized to her family and people she had hurt as a result of her schemes, which she blamed on a gambling addiction.

Town turned down a request by Lee to sentence Maria to an extended term of up to 20 years.

Maria was sentenced in February to the 10-year maximum for several other schemes that bilked friends and family members out of thousands of dollars. Town yesterday ordered that all of Maria's sentences run concurrently.

In 1979, Maria solicited money from friends and relatives to invest in fictitious cargo containers, which she said contained surplus federal goods that would return as much as 20 to 1.

Police said she collected millions of dollars before the scheme was stopped in 1981. Police confiscated more than 60 vehicles, along with jewelry, furnishings and other valuables.