PAI’s Don Christy to be sentenced Wednesday in multimillion-dollar Hilton Head fraud

Don Christy is scheduled to appear Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Charleston, where he will be sentenced for his role in stealing an estimated $3.5 million from multiple property owners associations on Hilton Head Island.

Christy — the former Property Administrators Inc. owner who in May pleaded guilty to one count of federal wire fraud — was supposed to have been sentenced in February, but District Court Judge David C. Norton declined to do so since Christy had not yet provided a full financial disclosure.

That disclosure should, presumably, shed light on what Christy did with the stolen money.

Christy orchestrated a yearslong scheme during which he and his accountant, Lisa Arnold, made unauthorized transfers from clients’ accounts, overcharged them with bogus “advance management fees” and prepared false financial statements in an attempt to cover up the embezzlement.

In February, Arnold accepted a plea deal from Assistant U.S. Attorney Rhett DeHart and helped build the case against her former boss. She received two years of probation after pleading guilty to one count of misprision of a felony — meaning that she knew a crime was being committed but failed to report it to authorities.

Most of the stolen money was used to cover PAI’s payroll after the company began to experience financial hardship in 2007, federal prosecutors said in May.

Christy faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, restitution payments and up to a $250,000 fine, prosecutors said.

Wednesday’s hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the J. Waties Waring Judicial Center.

This story was originally published April 4, 2017 at 10:57 PM with the headline "PAI’s Don Christy to be sentenced Wednesday in multimillion-dollar Hilton Head fraud."