Liquor inspectors took repeated bribes, jury told

By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer

Two Honolulu Liquor Commission investigators engaged in repeated examples of greed and corruption when they took money from hostess bars in exchange for not enforcing liquor laws, a federal prosecutor told a jury in the opening of a bribery and extortion trial yesterday.

Harvey Hiranaka and Eduardo Mina were among eight investigators indicted by a federal grand jury two years ago on charges of taking cash bribes from October 2000 to December 2001 but they are the only ones who have pleaded not guilty. The indictments were one of the state's largest alleging corruption in a government agency.

The bribes ranged from $40 to $1,080 and totalled more than $11,500.

"This case is about greed and corruption," Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Seabright said in his opening statements. "It's about selling a public office."

The inspectors typically received $100 from bar owners in exchange for overlooking violations that ranged from selling liquor to a minor to inappropriate behavior by exotic dancers, Seabright said. Working in pairs and well into the wee hours of the morning, the inspectors told themselves "they were on the payroll," Seabright said.

"In exchange for receiving that money, they either overlooked violations or simply stayed away from a bar," Seabright said.

The case against the men was made with the help of another liquor inspector, Charles Wiggins, who secretly recorded dozens of conversations for the FBI from October 2000 to May 2001, Seabright said. Many of the tapes will be played during the trial before U.S. District Judge David Ezra.

"Mr. Wiggins uncovered massive corruption within the liquor commission," Seabright said.

Wiggins had also received bribes in the past, Seabright said.

"He felt the world may come crashing down on him so in part to protect himself, he agreed to help out," Seabright said.

But Hiranaka's attorney, federal Assistant Public Defender Pamela Byrne, said her client never "threatened or strong-armed anyone." The payments were nothing more than "gifts" from bar owners, a practice that had gone on for decades, she said.

"This has been blown completely out of proportion," Byrne said. "A local style — a local custom — that has been nuked into racketeering."

Hiranaka is a quiet man making car payments who has been saddled with "Mafioso-sounding" charges, she said.

"Is he rich?" she said. "Not hardly."

Mina's attorney, Clifford Hunt, argued that his client was not accepted by his fellow investigators. Hunt said Mina was elderly and spoke with a heavy Filipino accent.

No one wanted to work with Mina, who often locked himself out of the office, and no one felt safe letting him drive, Hunt said. Consequently, investigators on the take told bar owners not to trust Mina or give him money, although one actually chased him around a car with cash in her hand, Hunt said.

"He was an old man and was known to be by the book," Hunt said.

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.