City charges 2 in illegal
Harris donationsAn ex-chairman of the
UH Regents and a president
of an isle firm face charges
City prosecutors have filed charges against a former chairman of the University of Hawaii's Board of Regents and the president of one of the state's largest engineering firms, alleging they made illegal political donations to Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris' campaign.
In complaints filed in state District Court on Friday, prosecutors alleged that R.M. Towill Corp. President Russell Figueiroa and former Towill Chairman Donald Kim made excessive political donations to the Harris campaign and made them under false names.
The charges are part of a plea deal outlined earlier this month by the Prosecutor's Office in which Kim and Figueiroa agreed to plead no contest to the misdemeanor campaign spending violations.
In exchange, prosecutors will drop charges against several Towill employees and business associates who were indicted by an Oahu grand jury for making illegal political gifts to the Harris campaign.
Figueiroa and Kim could not be reached for comment.
The charges are misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail. But Kim and Figueiroa are expected to seek a deferral of their no-contest pleas, which would allow them to avoid prison time and get their criminal cases dismissed if they stay out of trouble.
Kim, who was Towill's chairman from 1981 to 2000, served as chairman of the UH Board of Regents between 1998 and 2000 and served as a regent between 1997 and 2001. He also was president of the UH Alumni Association for the 1994-1995 school year.
Figueiroa, a land surveyor, has worked for Towill for more than 20 years.
Founded in 1930, R.M. Towill is one of the state's largest engineering firms and one of the city's largest contractors. The firm has received more than $30 million in nonbid city work since 1996.
A Star-Bulletin study in October found that dozens of Towill employees, their relatives and people linked to their subcontractors contributed more than $300,000 to the Harris campaign during the past eight years.
Those donors included Towill executives Kenneth Sakai, Nancy Matsuno and Roy Tsutsui and former company comptroller Robert Ko, who were indicted last year for making illegal donations to the Harris campaign. Charges against the four executives, along with similar charges against Big Island businessman Donn Mende, his brother Hawaii County Deputy Clerk Jay Mende and their mother, Masae Mende, will be dropped as a result of the plea deal.
The Harris campaign has denied any link between political contributions and the awarding of city contracts.
In a related matter, Honolulu Police arrested two local engineers as part of its ongoing investigation.
Norman Nagamine and Dwight Okawa were booked Monday on suspicion of money laundering, illegal ownership of a business and making political donations under false names.
Nagamine is president of Nagamine Okawa Engineers Inc. and Okawa is a vice president at the company. The state Campaign Spending Commission has linked the firm to about $27,000 in questionable political donations to the Harris campaign.
Both were released pending investigation.
