Man jailed 7 years
for money laundering

Henry Blakley laundered $413,000 with
ties to a Hawaii drug empire

By Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

Without lawyers, criminals and drug dealers can only launder their money in the washing machine, said a line from the movie "The Firm."

The same can be said for local businessman Henry Blakley, said assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall Silverberg. "Without businessmen willing to launder the drug proceeds of drug dealers, the drug dealers are unable to profit to the same extent from their drug dealing."

Blakley, a health care executive who conspired to launder drug money into a proposed surgical clinic on Maui, yesterday was sentenced to seven years in federal prison.

Federal Judge David Ezra sentenced Blakley, a business partner of former state House Speaker Daniel Kihano, to 85 months for laundering $413,000 into Hale Nani Partners.

Blakley and Kihano headed a company that controlled 80 percent of Hale Nani Partners, which had sought approval from the state in 1993 to build and operate a $5 million surgery center.

The money came from John Bowley, who was convicted of supplying the Frank Moon drug empire and others with crystal methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine.

Bowley invested his money with Honolulu attorney Richard Frunzi, who arranged $500,000 in cash to be invested in the surgical clinic. Frunzi last year pleaded guilty to conspiracy.

In exchange for investing his money, Bowley retained stock ownership. "It gave him a way to clean his drug proceeds into a legitimate business in the surgery center," said Silverberg.

Blakley was in charge of the "nuts and bolts" of laundering Bowley's money so it could be used by the two businesses that made up Hale Nani Partners, Silverberg said.

"Having attorneys like Frunzi and businessmen like Blakley laundering money for him was invaluable to him," he added.