Campaign donations probe cost $700,000
By Ken Kobayashi and Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Staff Writers
After 3 1/2 years, city prosecutors say the end is near for one of Hawai'i's biggest investigations into illegal campaign donations, which they say cost about $700,000 and resulted in the prosecution of 49 individuals and companies.
While prosecutors point out that all the defendants either pleaded guilty or did not contest the charges, critics say the probe was an unfair use of taxpayer money.
Only one person was prosecuted for a felony, while all the others were prosecuted on misdemeanor charges.
But City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle said the probe will have far-reaching effects.
"The idea here was to destroy a culture of corruption and certainly this has been an enormous blow to this type of conduct," he said.
Carlisle said about 10 cases are left to be prosecuted, but declined to name the individuals or companies.
He said his office spent roughly $200,000 a year for the salaries of the key deputy prosecutor and his support staff, but the amount will be less this year as fewer cases will be prosecuted. He estimated the cost for this year will be $150,000.
The money, Carlisle said, was well spent.
The probe targeted hundreds of thousands of dollars of illegal campaign donations made to Hawai'i politicians, most of them Democrats.
It resulted in criminal misdemeanor prosecutions against a stream of architects and engineers who admitted to donating money over the campaign limits and under false names.
But William McCorriston, lawyer for former Mayor Jeremy Harris and a staunch critic of the investigation that he says targeted his client, said it's about time that the investigation came to a conclusion.
"It has done incalculable damage to Jeremy Harris, both in his capacity as mayor, a potential gubernatorial candidate and an individual," McCorriston said.
"He was unfairly targeted as a source of this alleged corruption when in fact every person on the street knows this has been happening for years."
Harris was never charged with any criminal wrongdoing, but he dropped out of the 2002 gubernatorial race as the prosecutors continued their investigation.
McCorriston also pointed out that the cost estimates do not include the salary of Honolulu Police Department Major Dan Hanagami who is working on the investigation.
During the probe, subpoenas went out to hundreds of individuals and companies in an effort to uncover what appeared to be the widespread practice by architects, engineers and others of making illegal donations.
But prosecutors were not able to charge anyone with steering or granting government contracts in exchange for the illegal donations to the Harris campaign.
According to city prosecutors, 47 individuals and two companies pleaded guilty or no contest to illegal donation charges.
Although tens of thousands of dollars in fines were collected, only two people ended up serving time in jail — 10 days each — and all who pleaded guilty or no contest were given a chance to have their criminal cases dropped if they abided by conditions similar to probation.
According to city prosecutors, only one person, Michael Matsumoto of SSFM International, was charged with a felony, in this case money laundering. But he pleaded no contest and was also given a chance to have the criminal case dismissed.
One other person was sentenced to a 10-day jail term, but the Hawai'i Supreme Court in February overturned the conviction of Honolulu attorney Edward Y.C. Chun, who had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor of making contributions over the limit.
The criminal cases were in addition to an investigation by the Campaign Spending Commission that netted hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.
The probe's cost came up yesterday at a City Council budget hearing, with City Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi saying, "We wondered how much more will be spent."
Kobayashi had intended to ask Carlisle about those expenses at the hearing, but a discussion on salaries ran long and Carlisle had to leave before Kobayashi had a chance to talk with him.
Carlisle later told The Advertiser that his cost estimate is more of a "ballpark" figure. He based it on the salaries of the former key deputy prosecutor, Randal Lee, who is now a state judge, and the current deputy prosecutor Chris Van Marter, and the support staff that includes a paralegal and an investigator.
It does not include the time spent by other prosecutors, such as himself, who also helped on the cases, Carlisle said.
He said the cost will be less this year because in the beginning, the investigation would uncover new cases.
"There appears to be some light at the end of the tunnel," he said. "It also means fewer cases to be resolved and somewhat less work going into it right now."
During the budget committee hearing, Kobayashi also wondered "why we're using city funds to investigate other state elected officials, especially from the Neighbor Islands, and whether that should be the role of the attorney general."
But Carlisle said every case his office has prosecuted "has been within the jurisdiction of the city and county of Honolulu."
Last month, the office sent one case to the attorney general's office for prosecution.
Reach Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030. Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.
