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| Photo Credit: AP. |
A Hawaii man who used $1.2 million in counterfeit bank checks to post bail for three people has been arrested.
Samuela
Tuikolongahau Jr. was detained by federal authorities on Monday and was ordered
held without bail, The Associated Press reports.
A U.S.
Secret Service affidavit filed in court alleged that the man presented the bank
checks for $760,000, $400,000 and $50,000 in 2020 during the attempt to bail the
three persons held at the Oahu Community Correctional Center, according to The
Associated Press.
Tuikolongahau
left the Honolulu courthouse after being told the checks would need
verification, according to court documents. However, officials determined that the
checks were counterfeit and the two men and woman he tried to get out of jail
were not released, according to The Associated Press.
The Associated
Press reported that in August 2020, Tuikolongahau obtained a counterfeit
cashier’s check for $36,000 purported to be from a credit union and tried to
use it, and someone else’s identification, to purchase a Land Rover from a
Honolulu used car lot, the affidavit said.
The suspect
also used someone else’s identification to open an account online at Charles
Schwab and tried to deposit counterfeit and altered checks into that account, according
to court documents.
The suspect
appeared in Federal court Tuesday, where a judge appointed defense attorney Walter
Rodby to represent him, according to The Associated Press.
His
relationship with the three persons is not known.
.