Harris donor
charged over gifts
City prosecutors have filed criminal charges against the head of a civil engineering firm linked to more than $45,000 in political contributions to Mayor Jeremy Harris' campaign.
In a two-count complaint filed in state District Court on Sept. 16, prosecutors alleged that Royce Fukunaga, president of Fukunaga & Associates Inc., made an excessive political donation to the Harris campaign.
They also charged him with making a political contribution to the Harris campaign under a false name.
The charges, which are misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail, come after the state Campaign Spending Commission fined Fukunaga's firm $24,000 in 2003 for making illegal political contributions to the campaigns of Harris, former Gov. Ben Cayetano, former Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono and former Maui Mayor James "Kimo" Apana.
Fukunaga's attorney, Pam Tamashiro, declined comment, saying she has not seen the complaint.
Fukunaga joins a list of local architects and engineers targeted by the prosecutor's investigation into the Harris campaign. Several top executives -- including SSFM International Inc.'s former chief executive, Michael Matsumoto, and Royal Contracting Co. Vice President and former Honolulu Police Commissioner Leonard Leong -- pleaded no contest to the charges.
According to an April 2003 conciliation agreement with the Campaign Spending Commission, Fukunaga, his employees and their relatives made nearly two dozen political donations worth $45,750 to Harris. They also contributed $4,500 to Cayetano's campaign, $9,000 to Hirono's campaign and $3,000 to Apana's campaign.
Of the contributions to the Harris campaign, the commission said that $31,750 were made in false names and another $17,750 exceeded legal limits.
State law bars donors from giving more than $4,000 to a mayoral candidate during a four-year cycle. Donors also are prohibited from giving money in the names of others.
www.hawaii.gov/campaign/
