Prosecutors claim
deal on donationsDefense attorneys for Towill's
president and ex-chairman say
there is no final deal yet
City prosecutors said they have reached a tentative plea agreement in their criminal investigation into illegal political contributions by one of the state's largest engineering firms.
In a hearing before state Circuit Judge Steven Alm yesterday, Deputy Prosecutor Randal Lee said the president of R.M. Towill Corp., Russell Figueiroa, and Towill's former chairman Donald Kim have agreed to plead no contest to misdemeanor charges of making excessive campaign contributions to Mayor Jeremy Harris' campaign and to making contributions under false names.
Lee said that his office will agree to drop charges against Towill executives Roy Tsutsui, Nancy Matsuno and Kenneth Sakai and former Towill comptroller Robert Ko.
Prosecutors also will agree to drop charges against Donn, Jay and Masae Mende, of the Big Island, who were indicted by an Oahu grand jury with the Towill executives for making illegal political contributions.
Figueiroa had no comment, and Kim could not be reached for comment.
Under state law the two face up to a year in jail for each count, but both could seek a deferral of their no-contest plea to avoid jail time.
Defense attorneys said Lee mischaracterized the status of the negotiations. After the hearing, Allan Suematsu, an attorney for Matsuno, said talks are ongoing but there is no final agreement.
Suematsu said defense lawyers recently filed motions to dismiss the case because the statute of limitations had run out on the charges.
Neither Figueiroa nor Kim has been charged or arrested.
Figueiroa and Kim are among the most politically connected government contractors to be targeted by city prosecutors in their two-year investigation into the Harris campaign.
Kim, who served as Towill's chairman between 1981 and 2000, is a former member of the University of Hawaii's board of regents and a major donor to the university.
"They have been at the top of the illegal campaign contribution food chain that's dominated Hawaii politics for many years," said Bob Watada, executive director of the state Campaign Spending Commission, which has been conducting a similar, administrative investigation into the Towill firm.
Founded in 1930, R.M. Towill is one of the state's largest engineering firms and one of the city's largest contractors. Since 1996 the firm has received more than $30 million in nonbid city work.
A Star-Bulletin study in October found Towill employees and their spouses contributed more than $80,000 to the Harris campaign while the Mendeses contributed more than $13,000 to the Harris campaign.
Towill's major subcontractors also gave generously. Geolabs, which conducted the site work for Towill on the city's Ewa Villages revitalization project, was fined $64,000 in January 2002 by the state Campaign Spending Commission for making more than $55,000 in illegal political contributions to Harris and other local Democrats, while Wesley Segawa & Associates Inc. was fined $53,000 by the commission in July for allegedly laundering more than $40,000 to the campaigns of Harris and former Gov. Ben Cayetano.
The Harris campaign's lawyers have denied any link between political contributions and the awarding of city contracts.