Posted on: Thursday, March 10, 2005

Campaign donors fined $228,750

Advertiser Staff

The Campaign Spending Commission yesterday approved a $228,750 penalty for an engineering firm and its officers, the second highest fine for illegal campaign donations.

The fine is part of a settlement with ParEn Inc., also known as Park Engineering. The firm admitted making donations under false names and exceeding donation limits. According to the settlement, the donations went to the campaigns of Arnold Morgado, Ben Cayetano, Frank Fasi, Jeremy Harris, Kimo Apana, Mazie Hirono and Mufi Hannemann.

The highest fine leveled in the commission's donations investigation was the $303,000 penalty against SSFM International Inc. in October 2003.

The commission yesterday also approved a fine of $4,500 for AES Design Group for making donations under false names to Harris' campaign, said Bob Watada, the commission's executive director.