Latest scandal
recalls ’70s caseR.M. Towill Corp. had been
investigated for questionable
gifts to then-Mayor Frank Fasi
The old adage that history repeats itself might apply to R.M. Towill Corp.'s recent campaign finance woes.
The 73-year-old engineering firm, one of the state's largest, figured in the 1970s scandal that rocked Honolulu Hale during the tenure of then-Mayor Frank Fasi.
During the Kukui Plaza scandal that plagued the Fasi administration, separate state and federal grand juries indicted the engineering company's former head, Richard Towill, for allegedly filing a false corporate tax return.
The 1975 federal indictment, based on an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, charged that Towill awarded $13,850 in bonuses in 1969 to employees who were required to make political contributions with that money to Fasi and other local politicians.
Two years later, a separate Oahu grand jury, prompted by an investigation by Special Prosecutor Grant Cooper, indicted Towill, Fasi and former Fasi campaign treasurer Harry C.C. Chung on related charges.
The federal jury acquitted Towill in 1979 and the state dropped their cases against Towill, Fasi and Chung.
In the latest scandal, Honolulu police, working with the city Prosecutor's Office, in July arrested three Towill executives -- Vice President Roy Tsutsui, comptroller Nancy Matsuno and engineer Kenneth Sakai -- on suspicion of violating state campaign spending laws. HPD also arrested a retired Towill employee and six people linked to Towill's subcontractors.
The donors were not charged and Tsutsui, Matsuno and Sakai have since sued HPD's top white-collar investigator, Maj. Daniel Hanagami, saying he violated their constitutional rights.
Martin Plotnick, who was hired as a special investigator assigned to Cooper in the 1970s investigation, said he sees similarities between the two controversies, based on what he's read in the local newspapers.
But Plotnick, who is president of local market research firm Creative Resources Inc., recalled that the previous scandal apparently involved less money and was limited to a much smaller circle of Towill employees.
"It appears to be on a much bigger scale today," Plotnick said.
