2nd inspector admits guilt
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
The second of eight Honolulu Liquor Commission inspectors indicted by a federal grand jury in May on racketeering charges pleaded guilty yesterday to taking bribes to overlook liquor law violations and joining with other inspectors to protect bar owners who made the illegal payments.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
"Basically, I accepted money from certain licensees in order to overlook violations and continued to do this for a period of time," Samuel K.Y. Ho told federal Magistrate Judge Kevin Chang.
Samuel Ho leaves the Federal Courthouse after he pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from bar owners to overlook violations of the liquor law.
Ho, 43, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring with other Liquor Commission inspectors to take bribes from bar owners or operators and three counts of accepting the bribes.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Seabright, who is handling the prosecution against the indicted liquor inspectors, said Ho could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison and fined $250,000 on each of the four charges.
In exchange for pleading guilty, numerous other bribery charges against Ho were dropped on the condition that he testify against other inspectors, if necessary, and cooperate with officials working on the case.
Chang scheduled Ho to be sentenced Jan. 13 before U.S. District Judge David Ezra.
Another liquor inspector, Kenneth L. Wright, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to accepting $200 in bribes from two clubs and giving an investigator working undercover $100 to not cite a third club with liquor law violations.
The indictment returned by the federal grand jury in May against Ho, Wright and the other inspectors is one of Hawai'i's biggest cases 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 totaled about $11,500, the charges said.
Seabright said in 1997, after Ho began working for the Honolulu Liquor Commission, fellow inspectors David K.H. Lee and Harvey T. Hiranaka told Ho he could accept money from certain licensees.
Seabright said Lee and Hiranaka told Ho he should "take care of" the bar owners or operators that paid the money, meaning he should overlook violations.
Ho accepted payments in the field from bar operators and also at the Liquor Commission office, from Hiranaka and Lee as well as another inspector, Arthur M. Andres, Seabright said.
He said the four men and the other co-defendants shared information with one another about which licensees were paying bribes and were able to offer greater protection to bar operators paying the bribes, making the operators more willing to pay bribes.
In addition to Ho and Wright, the other six indicted in the case are Lee, Hiranaka, Andres, Eduardo C. Mina, Collin M. Oshiro and William B. Richardson Jr.
The bribery counts that Ho pleaded guilty to were for accepting $100 from the owner of New Lotte on Dec. 20, 2000; $300 from the owner of Club Mimi on Feb. 7, 2001; and $400 from the owner of Club Pink Carp on March 21, 2001. A commission inspector working undercover recorded each payment, according to court documents.
Seabright declined to say how the decision by at least two of the inspectors to plead guilty may affect the case against the others.
Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.
