City charges 2 donors
to Harris campaignThe contributors are linked to a
Kaimuki engineering company
City prosecutors have filed criminal charges against two donors linked to a Kaimuki engineering firm that gave more than $24,000 in questionable contributions to Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris' campaign.
In separate criminal complaints issued on April 21, prosecutors alleged that Stanley Shimabukuro and Harold Yoshizaki made excessive political donations to the Harris campaign.
The charges are misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail.
Shimabukuro and Yoshizaki are former engineers with Shimabukuro Endo & Yoshizaki Inc. Neither could be reached for immediate comment. Pamela Tamashiro, an attorney for the engineering firm, also could not be reached.
People familiar with the criminal investigation said the charges are an outgrowth of the prosecutor's investigation into city contractor R.M. Towill Corp., whose employees, subcontractors and relatives gave more than $300,000 for the Harris campaign.
Last May, the state Campaign Spending Commission fined Shimabukuro Endo & Yoshizaki $32,000 for making excessive and false-name political contributions to the campaigns of Harris, former Gov. Ben Cayetano and ex-Maui Mayor James "Kimo" Apana.
Commission investigators found that the company's employees and their spouses contributed $24,500 to the Harris campaign and $14,000 to the Cayetano campaign since 1996.
The firm also made $2,500 in false-name donations to the Apana campaign, the commission said.
Under state law, donors can give no more than $4,000 to a mayoral candidate and $6,000 to a gubernatorial candidate during a four-year election cycle. Donors also are barred from giving money in the name of others.
Since the investigation began in 2002, the prosecutor's office has filed criminal charges against nearly 30 donors linked to major city contractors.