Kumon blackmailer
to serve 15 months

The lenient sentence acknowledges
the Manoa man's remorse

A Manoa man who admitted extorting $150,000 from the son of the founder of the Kumon learning centers was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison yesterday.

U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor granted the government's request to sentence Sean Leslie Yonehiro to a term below an advisory guideline range of 21 to 24 months because of his cooperation and acceptance of responsibility. But she chastised Yonehiro for his conduct, calling his actions "reprehensible."

"Blackmail is a very ugly crime, and there really isn't a justification for committing that type of act," she said.

Yonehiro, 39, pleaded guilty in May to sending numerous e-mail and phone communications to Hiroshi Kumon in Japan between February 2003 to February 2004, threatening to hurt his reputation.

Yonehiro claimed he had 2,000 "compromising" photos of Kumon, who purportedly had an affair in 1996 with Debra Tajiri, the director of two Kumon franchises here.

The e-mails were traced to a Nipo Street home where Yonehiro lived with Tajiri, his fiancee, and to an account belonging to Tajiri. Yonehiro worked as an assistant at the Kumon centers that Tajiri managed.

Assistant federal defender Alexander Silvert said Yonehiro is remorseful about what happened and has been forthright with the government since his arrest in February 2004. He said it is highly unlikely that his client will commit another crime.

"I think he understands what he did wrong -- he took the law into his own hands," Silvert said.

In a brief statement to the court, Yonehiro apologized to Kumon for what he put him through. Kumon was not present at the sentencing.

Tajiri was initially charged along with Yonehiro, but prosecutors have since elected not to prosecute her because the evidence showed Yonehiro appeared to have been acting on his own.

According to investigators, Tajiri herself began e-mailing Kumon in Japan in March 2002 up until January 2003 requesting money to complete the remodeling of her home and for medical treatment.

In her e-mails, she told Kumon, "you have taken a lifestyle from me," and that he should repay her medical costs. Kumon paid her more than $350,000. Tajiri continued to request money in March and June 2003, noting that her life was "hell," according to court documents.

However, beginning in February 2003, Kumon also began receiving e-mails from an individual who called himself "Max Lee," whom investigators later learned was Yonehiro. Prosecutors said Tajiri's e-mails appeared unrelated to the threats made by Yonehiro.

"Lee" repeatedly threatened to release pornographic photos of Kumon to the media if he didn't pay. He also threatened to approach the Kumon school board, who might be willing to offer more money.

The threatening e-mails to Kumon continued until Dec. 23, 2003, when Kumon finally offered $150,000 for the photos and agreed to set up a meeting to exchange the money.

Yonehiro was arrested Feb. 17, 2004, when he showed up at Ala Moana Park and took a bag he believed to contain the money from an FBI agent acting as Kumon's representative.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Kawahara said one might feel outrage and sympathy for Yonehiro, who began e-mailing Kumon after learning about what happened between Tajiri and Kumon years before. But Yonehiro crossed the line when he realized blackmail was an easy way to make big money, he said.

"Whatever sense of outrage he had -- and the judge recognized this -- became secondary to the notion of greed and blackmail," Kawahara said.

Yonehiro was ordered to surrender to a facility designated by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons on Nov. 3. After he completes his sentence, he will be placed on supervised release for a year and must complete 100 hours of community service.

Silvert said afterward that the sentence was "fair and just."