Firm fined $20,000 for illegal donations
By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer
A Honolulu contracting company and two of its top executives — including a police commissioner facing a criminal charge — will pay a $20,000 fine to the state Campaign Spending Commission for making illegal political donations.
Royal Contracting Co., its president David H. Hulihee and vice president Leonard K.P. Leong, agreed to the fine to settle allegations that they illegally gave thousands of dollars to Mayor Jeremy Harris, former City Council chairman Mufi Hannemann, and former gubernatorial candidate D.G. "Andy" Anderson.
Leong, who Harris appointed to the Police Commission in 1996, is also scheduled to appear in court today as part of a wide-ranging criminal probe of donations received by the mayor and others.
And prosecutors are to convene a grand jury tomorrow to seek felony indictments against executives from the R.M. Towill engineering company for allegedly making similar, but much more extensive, illegal political donations.
Leong pleaded not guilty in September to a misdemeanor charge of making campaign donations to Harris under a false name. He is scheduled to either change his plea today or have a trial date set, deputy city prosecutor Randal Lee said. The charge carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $2,000 fine.
Royal Contracting executives, employees and family members gave $27,000 to Harris, $15,000 to Anderson, and $12,300 to Hannemann, according to the Campaign Spending Commission. Donors can legally give no more than $4,000 to a candidate for mayor and $6,000 to someone running for governor. None of the politicians have been charged with wrongdoing.
Harris has said he will not ask Leong to step down from the seven-member Police Commission while the criminal charge is pending.
Leong, who served for several years as the commission's chairman, would not comment on the case yesterday but said he would discuss his role on the panel after his court appearance. Several City Council members have publicly questioned whether Leong should continue to serve.
Police commissioners review citizen allegations of police misconduct and decide whether public money should be used to defend officers accused of wrongdoing. The commission also hires, and may remove, the chief of police.
Several witnesses have been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury tomorrow in the Towill case. Prosecutors would not comment, and the company's attorney could not be reached.
Three of the firm's top executives were arrested in June and July on suspicion of money laundering and illegal campaign activities. They later charged in a lawsuit that police arrested them "to retaliate and harass them for refusing to answer questions" when they appeared before a grand jury in September 2002.
Towill and Royal are major city contractors. Dozens of other firms that do business with state and city government have been fined during the past two years for making illegal donations, mainly to Harris, and seven defendants have been fined after pleading no contest to criminal charges.
Investigators have searched for evidence of a link between political donations and the awarding of contracts but have not filed any charges in that regard or publicly alleged that any kickbacks were made.
Reach Johnny Brannon at 525-8070 or jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com.
