2 fined for illegal
giving to Harris’ fund

SSFM officers Sato and Wong
must pay $1,000 each after
pleading no contest

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By Rick Daysog
rdaysog@starbulletin.com

A state judge fined two executives with the embattled engineering firm SSFM International Inc. today $1,000 each for making illegal political contributions to Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris' campaign.

District Judge Colette Garibaldi accepted no-contest pleas by SSFM vice presidents Warren Sato and Clayton Wong on the misdemeanor charges.

The no-contest pleas come less than a week after SSFM chief executive officer Michael Matsumoto pleaded no contest to making false name contributions and to a felony money laundering charge.

"These people used family and friends to make illegal contributions and concealed the identity of the true donors," Deputy Prosecutor Randal Lee said.

"Not only is it wrong to do this, but we're gonna put a stop to this," Lee said.

Girabaldi granted a request by David Hall and Birney Bervar, attorneys representing Sato and Wong, for a one-year deferred acceptance of their clients' no-contest pleas. The deferral means that if both men stay out of trouble for a year the case will be wiped from their records.

Hall and Bervar had argued that their clients had no prior criminal records.

Matsumoto was the first person convicted in City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle's yearlong investigation into the Harris campaign.

Norman Kawachika, another SSFM vice president, and June Takushi, the wife of SSFM vice president Lee Takushi also face misdemeanor charges. They will make their pleas at a later date.

The campaign spending violation is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. But prosecutors have agreed not to seek jail time in exchange for the defendants' cooperation.

The prosecutors also agreed not to seek criminal charges against friends and relatives of Wong and Sato in whose names they made contributions.

According to records compiled by the state Campaign Spending Commission, the SSFM firm has given about $400,000 in political donations to more than half a dozen local political candidates during the past decade.

Nearly half of that went to the Harris campaign. Former Gov. Ben Cayetano's 1998 re-election bid received more than $100,000.

Under state law, a donor can give no more than $4,000 to a mayoral candidate and $6,000 to a gubernatorial candidate during a four-year election cycle.

SSFM is a major contractor for the city and served as its consultant for the $45 million Central Oahu Regional Park project, which has incurred millions of dollars in cost overruns. City records reviewed by the Star-Bulletin showed that SSFM's nonbid consulting contract for the sports complex soared to $3.2 million from $932,000 as a result of four amendments.

City officials have said political donations play no role in the awarding of nonbid contracts.