NEWS BRIEF: Lehi, Utah Man Sentenced to Nine Years in Prison and Five Years of Supervised Release for "Stealing" $3.4 Million from Family and Friends

After pleading guilty in December 2023 to defrauding family members and acquaintances of over $3.4 million over a five-year-period, 60-year-old Mi Siona Patane, of Lehi, Utah was sentenced last week to nine years in prison and five years of supervised release.

Although the sealed indictment filed 15 December 2021 against Patane by the U.S. Attorney's Office (District of Utah) notes that he was/is also known as "Papalii Patane" and "Junior Patane," he is instead referred to throughout this and other formal legal documents issued by the government as Misiona Patane.

As such, according to the news release distributed last Friday by the U.S. Attorney's Office (District of Utah), "... (Misiona) Patane admitted that beginning in April 2015 and continuing through May 2020, he defrauded two sets of victims for his own benefit, including a relative who suffered a traumatic brain injury and had a trust to allow for a lifetime of care."

These fraudulent activities also included

• "... Forg(ing) legal documents,
• "Sen(ding) emails from sham email accounts, and
• "Pretend(ing) to be a private lawyer and an agent with the Utah Attorney General’s Office to further his scheme to defraud."

During his plea agreement in December 2023, Misiona Patane pled guilty to

1. "... multiple counts of bank fraud,
2. "wire fraud,
3. "money laundering, and
4. "aggravated identity theft."

As explained in the release, "The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation," and that "Assistant United States Attorneys Tanner Zumwalt and Seth Nielsen of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah prosecuted the case."

No information was published about when Misiona Patane will begin his nine-year imprisonment.

As it turns out, when charges were first brought against him in January 2022, Misiona Patane was also charged with "... one count of kidnapping" at the time, a charge he was not convicted of.

Additionally, as outlined in the 15 December 2021 indictment against Misiona Patane, his wife (Lavinia Patane) was also indicted at the same time "... with two counts of bank fraud and three counts of money laundering ...."

However, besides the filing of the January 2022 charges against both Misiona and Lavinia Patane, I have been unable to find any other legal information about her in the three years since the joint charges were made against them both.

Publisher's Note

This article/report was originally published and distributed to our Subscribers at approximately 07:10am (MT) on Wednesday, 12 March 2025.

However, if this report/article came to your attention sometime after this date/time and you'd like to change that, then (to become a subscriber), please follow the steps below.

Simply,

1. Click on a "Subscribe" button on any Utah Money Watch webpage (visit www.UtahMoneyWatch.com),
2. Enter in your name in the proper field in the popup window that appears on-screen, and
3. Enter your preferred email address in the proper field too.

That's it. And "Yes," it really is that simple.

For context, the purpose of Utah Money Watch is to publish financial / monetary news, information, context, and analysis NOT available through any other source.

[You might think of us as the inverse of Bloomberg, CNBC, and/or The Wall Street Journal. In other words, we are passionately focused on uncovering the most important monetary, financial, and/or business news and information that impact the organizations and people of Utah first, followed by regional news/info second, and national/international info/news last of all.]

So ... if you're you interested in timely Utah-focused monetary, financial, and/or business news, context, and analysis, content NOT currently available through any other source, then subscribe today.

Thanks.

Team Utah Money Watch