A Kona man who bilked 45 investors in his online lei business out of $1.2 million to fuel a high-stakes gambling habit in Las Vegas is asking a federal judge to sentence him Wednesday to 2-1/2 years in prison.
Newton Kaleo Okamoana Deleon, 48, is a “compulsive gambler,” and his habit led him “down a path of destruction” that cost him his career as an educator, his marriage and a relationship with his three children, his attorney, Michael Green, wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed April 30.
From at least 2017 and continuing through December 2020, Deleon used money from his investors to pay for his wagering addiction.
When he was up big, Deleon wrote to senior U.S. District Judge Hellen Gillmor that he “lived a whole month in the Penthouse suite at the Bellagio. I was gambling everyday. I’d lose, then I’d get more money (through the fraudulent activity associated with the case) and I went on this crazy streak. At one point, I was up $600,000 in two days. … I bought two Rolexes and two cars, a Chevy Tahoe and a Chevy Traverse … and in less than 24 hours I lost all the money. I had to go back to the dealer to return my car.”
His gambling got so severe that at one point Deleon was “living in his car with no money for shelter.” After losing $300,000 in Las Vegas in 2020, Deleon wrapped the cord of a blow dryer around his neck and tried to kill himself.
Green also asked that Deleon be required to undergo treatment for addiction.
Deleon was on supervised release in California where he lived before sentencing, but has been in custody since Jan. 22 at the Metropolitan Detention Center, Los Angeles.
Deleon was allegedly arrested Jan. 22 in Santa Ana, Calif., “for an offense in violation of federal, state, or local law while on pretrial release, in violation of the standard conditions of pretrial release,” according to federal court records.
Deleon was arrested following a fight with his fiancee, which Deleon described as a “loud verbal argument” in a letter to Gillmor.
Prior to his arrest, Deleon, who earned undergraduate and master’s degrees, was working for the Vista Unified School District in North San Diego providing online classes to students enrolled in Advanced Placement biology and AP environmental science courses.
In 2018, with his “marriage in shambles,” Deleon concocted a scheme to fuel his gambling habit where investors would put $5,000 into his business for a period of three months and get at least $7,500 back.
In the agreements he asked investors to sign with his business, leiorders.com, Deleon would repay the investors their “principal loan investment plus a substantial return within a set time frame, usually approximately one month,” according to a federal criminal information authored by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca A. Perlmutter and filed Sept. 6. “(Deleon) also promised to repay a return of profit, ranging from approximately 10% to 40% and additional fees ranging between approximately $100 to $500 per day if the principal and return were not repaid by the agreement’s designated approximate one-month period.” Deleon “well knew that he would not be able to repay the principal” or additional return promised in the agreements.
Deleon allegedly told investors that he needed investment funds to buy “flowers and supplies for lei purchase orders that he already had executed with third parties,” like well-known casino hotels in Las Vegas, according to federal court records.
He told one investor that once the lei were delivered to the third parties, the third parties would “take approximately one month to pay” Deleon and that Deleon would then “repay the principal investment loan and split the profit” with the investors as a return.
He created loan agreements and promissory notes to give the “false appearance of legitimate financial transactions upon which investors could rely.”
Deleon used “unauthorized and false branded logos and forged signatures” to fool investors into buying Deleon’s story that he had large business lei orders with third parties.
Deleon entered into a plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice on Sept. 25 to plead guilty to “engaging in a wire fraud scheme and artifice to defraud and engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity.”
In exchange, federal prosecutors agreed not to file additional charges related to the wire fraud scheme, including any “aggravated identity theft charges,” based on the information now known to the government.
He is facing up to 20 years in federal prison, up to a $250,000 fine and three years of federal probation after he gets out on the wire fraud charges and up to 10 years, a fine of up to $250,000 and three years of supervised release on the property transaction charge.
In an April 30 letter to Gillmor, Deleon apologized to the “victims who I hurt emotionally, financially and morally. I am very sorry for taking advantage of their kindness and honesty to commit the crimes I am guilty of. I am sorry for using the trust they had in me by taking their hard earned money and using it to feed my gambling addiction.”
“There is no excuse for my action and for what I have done to all of them I take full responsibility,” wrote Deleon.
