Liquor inspector admits taking cash bribes
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
One of eight Honolulu Liquor Commission inspectors indicted by a federal grand jury pleaded guilty yesterday to federal racketeering charges and has agreed to cooperate in the prosecution of the seven others.
Kenneth L. Wright admitted accepting $200 in bribes from two clubs and giving an investigator working undercover $100 to not cite a third club with liquor law violations.
Wright, who is free on unsecured $20,000 bail, is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 6 by federal District Judge David Ezra. Wright could be sentenced up to 20 years imprisonment for each of four racketeering counts and fined $250,000.
"He wants to take responsibility for what happened and put it behind him," said Wright's attorney, Mark Worsham. The lawyer said his client has been cooperating with the U.S. Attorney's office since February.
The indictment returned by the federal grand jury in May against Wright and the other inspectors is one of Hawai'i's biggest cases ever alleging corruption in a government agency. It accuses the liquor inspectors of accepting cash bribes on 58 occasions from October 2000 to December 2001 from owners, managers or employees of 45 hostess and strip bars in return for not enforcing liquor laws.
The payments ranged from $20 to more than $1,000 and totalled about $11,500, the charges said.
Wright is the only defendant to plead guilty. As part of the plea agreement filed in federal court yesterday, Wright agreed to cooperate with authorities and testify for the federal prosecution.
In the agreement, Wright stated that he and the seven codefendants agreed to obtain money "for the purpose and with the intent of not enforcing the laws and rules relating to the sale of liquor" at various hostess bars.
Wright admitted that he did not consider money paid to him to be a gift, but understood the money to be "illegal bribes and extortion money," according to the agreement. He and the other night-shift investigators also shared information with each other about which clubs and bars were paying bribes, the document said.
The other seven indicted are Wright's night-shift supervisors David K.H. Lee and Harvey T. Hiranaka, and investigators Arthur M. Andres, Samuel K.Y. Ho, Eduardo C. Mina, Collin M. Oshiro and William B. Richardson Jr.
Wright admitted accepting $100 indirectly from Club Ruby through Hiranaka and $100 from Club Moonlight from Andres on Dec. 21 and June 22, 2000, respectively, according to the plea agreement. Wright also acknowledged paying $100 to another investigator, who was cooperating with the FBI and police probe, last Dec. 21 and urging him to "be gentle" with Club Sun, the document said.
