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Fasi accused
of violating federal
election laws

The ex-mayor's rent for his
campaign headquarters was cut
by the foreign landlord

By Mary Adamski
Star-Bulletin

Former Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi has been accused of violating federal election law because the landlord for his campaign headquarters reduced his rent.

The Federal Election Commission claims that because the owners of the Chinese Cultural Plaza were from Taiwan, the transaction falls under laws prohibiting foreigners from making an election contribution and Americans from soliciting or accepting such benefits.

The commission filed a complaint in Honolulu yesterday asking the U.S. District Court to assess a civil penalty equal to the amount of the rent reduction or $5,000 against Friends for Fasi and the longtime Honolulu mayor.

Fasi said he has refused government offers to settle and will fight the charge. "As far as our lawyers are concerned, we will be completely vindicated."

Taiwan-based Longevity International Enterprises Corp. owned the Chinese Cultural Plaza when Fasi began renting space in 1981. His campaign organization occupied the second-floor space through successful mayoral races and unsuccessful gubernatorial campaigns until his defeat in the September 1996 mayoral primary.

The election commission said that from at least January 1990 to November 1996, the monthly rental payments were made by Friends for Fasi. The defendants accepted reduced rental costs from 1994 to the end of occupancy, according to the complaint.

"For a time the Republican Party used that space, are they going to go after them?" Fasi said.

"If they really want to go after alien-controlled business involvement in campaigns, they ought to look at hotels. Anyone running for Congress, governor, mayor, whatever, we all got special prices from these alien-owned hotels."

Fasi, first elected mayor in 1968, said that when he first talked to Chinese Cultural Plaza management, "I said it was more space than I need, but they wouldn't divide the space."

Fasi said that for the federal agency "to come out at this late date looks like a political vendetta."