Police, FBI
examining Holt
expenses

The Campaign Spending
Commission voted last month to turn over its
inquiry to the prosecutor's office

By Rick Daysog
Star-Bulletin

The Honolulu Police Department is investigating irregularities in former state Sen. Milton Holt's campaign finances.

HPD investigators met with the state Campaign Spending Commission about a week ago to discuss specific expenditures listed in Holt's campaign funds.

Officers wanted to know what types of expenditures are acceptable and what are not, according to a source familiar with the HPD investigation.

The meeting comes after the commission last month voted to turn over its inquiry into Holt's finances to the city prosecutor's office. The commission has alleged that Holt loaned himself $15,000 and paid himself $9,800 in petty cash disbursements since 1992.

Holt, now an employee at the Bishop Estate, could not be reached for immediate comment this morning. His attorney, Reginald Minn, also was unavailable.

The HPD investigation comes as the FBI has opened its own inquiry into Holt's campaign expenses.

State Attorney General Margery Bronster also is reviewing questionable charges by Holt on Bishop Estate credit cards as part of her investigation of the trustees of the multi-billion dollar estate.

Since 1992, Holt has charged more than $20,000 on Bishop Estate credit cards at Las Vegas casinos and local hostess bars, said the attorney general's office. Holt, who lost his Senate seat in 1996, said he has paid back the estate.

Records of Holt's credit card transactions were included in the Bishop Estate's response to an audit done by the Internal Revenue Service. Those same IRS records were handed to the attorney general's office under a court order.

In a separate matter, the attorney general's office said it recently received a subpoena from an undisclosed federal or state law enforcement agency seeking the IRS records as part of an investigation.

In court papers filed yesterday, the state asked Circuit Judge Kevin Chang to modify his earlier order so it could comply with the agency's subpoena.

A spokeswoman for the attorney general's office declined to discuss details of the subpoena.

---

Bishop Estate Archive