Worker abuse nets 26 years in prison

To members of the Tongan community, Waipahu businessman Lueleni Maka was known for his generosity. He provided food and necessities for families in need, supplies and manpower during funeral preparations and jobs so that sons could send money to family back home.

But there was another side to Maka, the one with the violent temper who would beat his workers if they crossed him or threw anything within reach, be it a two-by-four, metal cable or helium gas tank, federal prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge Susan Mollway sentenced Maka, 54, to 26 years in federal prison yesterday, noting that his service to his community "doesn't come close to erasing his responsibility for the crimes the jury said he committed."

"He got six victims here promising to help them with jobs and easy money, but once here, they were held by the defendant in ways including brutal beatings and inflicting fear in them," Mollway said.

She also noted that Maka was engaged in what appeared to be a pattern of smuggling Tongans illegally into the United States using false documents.

A federal jury convicted Maka in December 2004 of 25 counts, including human trafficking, involuntary servitude, forced labor, alien harboring, alien smuggling and document falsification in a case prosecutors described as "modern-day slavery."

Maka, in a statement to the court, said the reason why he was charged is because he tried to help his people, many of whom are depressed and impoverished.

He said he arranged for the men to come to Hawaii at their mothers' request to work for his landscaping and masonry business, but warned them they would be coming in illegally.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney William Shipley said Maka did not treat his Tongan workers under him as social equals like he did the workers who were not Tongan.

"He took advantage of those who didn't have advantage," he said. "He abused them and exploited them."

Maka withheld their pay and made them live in squalor and sleep on mattresses on the ground in a shack at his pig farm in Nanakuli, Shipley said.

When the mother of the girlfriend of one of his workers questioned his abuse, he allegedly told her, "This is how we do it in Tonga," to which she replied, "This isn't Tonga."