Harris campaign
probe adds 3 arrestsAn engineering firm's vice
president was arrested last week
Honolulu police made three more arrests yesterday as part of city Prosecutor Peter Carlisle's 18-month investigation into allegedly illegal donations to Mayor Jeremy Harris' political campaign.
The police white-collar division arrested Linton Lee, an employee of local engineering firm NTW Associates Inc., and his brother, Lambert Lee, on suspicion of money laundering and making political donations under a false name.
Honolulu police also arrested Nancy Matsuno, a comptroller with the local engineering firm R.M. Towill Corp., on suspicion of money laundering, illegal ownership of a business and making false-name contributions.
The suspects were not charged and were released pending investigation.
The Prosecutor's Office declined comment. City lawyers and attorneys for the Harris campaign have denied any connection between political donations and the awards of city contracts.
The arrests come a week after Honolulu police arrested R.M. Towill Vice President Roy Tsutsui on suspicion of similar charges.
Matsuno, 55, could not be reached for comment, and an attorney for R.M. Towill did not return calls.
Linton Lee, 51, works as a draftsman at NTW. He denied wrongdoing and said he was called into police headquarters after he recently invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination.
In addition to his 42-year-old brother Lambert, police have called in a second brother, Lester, for questioning today. Both Lambert and Lester Lee work for Times Super Market, which is not under investigation.
NTW, a subcontractor on several city projects, contributed $1,000 to the Harris campaign in September 2000, according to state Campaign Spending Commission records. Lambert and Lester Lee gave a total of $2,150 to the Harris campaign in 2000 and 2001.
NTW's President Jeffrey Wong declined comment.
City prosecutors and Honolulu police have been investigating R.M. Towill since February, when they issued a subpoena seeking hundreds of pages of company records for the 1996-2002 period. The request covered documents relating to city contracts, political contributions, payments to subcontractors and gifts to city officials.
Founded in 1930, R.M. Towill is one of the state's largest engineering firms and is one of the city's largest outside consultants. The company has received more than $17 million in nonbid city contracts since 1996, including a $2.9 million contract to manage the $300 million expansion of the Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant.
A computer-assisted study by the Star-Bulletin found that R.M. Towill employees and their relatives made more than $42,000 in campaign contributions to the Harris campaign during the past 10 years.
Under state law, a donor can give no more than $4,000 to a mayoral candidate during a four-year election cycle. Donors also are barred from making political donations under false names.
Since starting their investigation in January 2001, the Prosecutor's Office and Honolulu police have issued more than 200 subpoenas and have arrested 10 local residents linked to city contractors or the Harris campaign.
Two executives with local engineering firm SSFM International Inc. have pleaded no-contest to making illegal contributions while a third, the firm's Chief Executive Michael Matsumoto, pleaded no-contest to laundering $139,000 to the Harris campaign.
A parallel investigation by the state Campaign Spending Commission has resulted in more than $300,000 in civil fines against more than 60 city and state contractors.