City charges executive
for alleged illegal giftsJanice Fukuda is accused of
making false-name donations
City prosecutors charged a local insurance executive allegedly linked to an engineering firm that directed more than $29,000 to Mayor Jeremy Harris' campaign.
In documents filed in Honolulu District Court on Dec. 2, prosecutors alleged that Janice Fukuda, a vice president at First Insurance Co. of Hawaii, made a political contribution under a false name to the Harris campaign in May 1999.
Fukuda, who could not be reached for comment, is scheduled to appear in District Court on Friday for her arraignment and plea.
If convicted, Fukuda could receive up to a year in jail and a fine of $2,000.
The Aiea resident allegedly is linked to the local engineering firm Wilson Okamoto & Associates Inc., whose employees and associates have given $29,500 to the Harris campaign since 1996, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
Two of those donors -- First Hawaiian Bank executive Kent Iboshi and Kaneohe resident Leona Nishimura -- recently pleaded no contest to charges of making illegal political contributions to the Harris campaign.
Iboshi was fined $150 while Nishimura received a $100 fine.
Those fines came after the state Campaign Spending Commission fined Wilson Okamoto executive Gary Okamoto and his wife, Lori, $44,500 in October for making $80,000 in illegal political donations to Harris, former Gov. Ben Cayetano, ex-Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono, past Maui Mayor James "Kimo" Apana and former Honolulu mayoral candidate Arnold Morgado.
The Wilson Okamoto firm is a major government contractor that has received more than $17 million in nonbid design and consulting work from the city since 1996.
Harris' attorneys have denied any link between political donations and the awarding of city contracts.
