HONOLULU — Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrested former Honolulu prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro on Friday on charges that he accepted bribes from a local engineering and architecture firm in exchange for prosecuting a former employee who had taken legal action against the firm.

What You Need To Know

  • The indictment charges Keith Kaneshiro, Dennis Mitsunaga and three others with conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and federal program bribery, as well as conspiracy against rights

  • The case grew out of a dispute between MAI and project architect Laurel Mau, who was fired and subsequently sued MAI

  • According to the indictment, MAI-connected donors contributed $45,000 to Kaneshiro's election campaign in exchange for Kaneshiro's office pursuing criminal charges against Mau

  • The indictments are the latest to come from an extensive federal investigation into corruption in the state

According to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court on June 2 and unsealed on Friday, Mitsunaga & Associates CEO Dennis Mitsunaga, and others connected to the firm contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Kaneshiro’s reelection campaigns in a quid pro quo arrangement.

The indictment charges Kaneshiro and Mitsunaga, along with MAI corporate secretary and office manager Terri Otani (a relative of Mitsunaga); MAI executive vice president and chief operating officer Aaron Fujii; and MAI employee (and later senior vice president) Chad McDonald with conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and federal program bribery, as well as conspiracy against rights.

The case grew out of a dispute between MAI and project architect Laurel Mau, identified in the indictment as “L.J.M.” Mau submitted a letter to her employer disagreeing with unspecified claims Mitsunaga had made about her and was fired the same day. The company later contested Mau’s request for unemployment benefits.

A claims reviewer determined that Mau was entitled to unemployment benefits, and the determination held up to subsequent MAI appeals to the state Employment Security Appeals Office and Hawaii Circuit Court over the next year. Mau subsequently filed suit against MAI.

On July 17, 2012, Fujii, the MAI executive vice president, filed a report with the Honolulu Police Department alleging that Mau and her attorney had committed theft against the company but provided no follow-up information.

A month later, Mau filed suit against MAI in District Court, alleging sex and age discrimination. (A subsequent trial in 2015 found no liability in Mau’s claims or in MAI’s counterclaims aside from MAI claim of breach of loyalty, for which the company was awarded a single dollar.)

That October, Mitsunaga and an individual identified in the indictment as an unindicted co-conspirator met with Kaneshiro and his executive assistant to persuade Kaneshiro to investigate and prosecute Mau, claiming that she had committed theft by billing time to the company while working unauthorized side jobs using MAI resources.

In the weeks following that initial meeting, Mitsunaga, the other named co-conspirators and other MAI employees, affiliates, subcontractors and relatives began contributing what would eventually total more than $45,000 to Kaneshiro’s re-election campaigns. As the indictment notes, none of the donors had contributed to Kaneshiro’s campaigns prior to October 2012.

In June 2014, a senior deputy prosecuting attorney in Kaneshiro’s office recommended filing charges against Mau. After reassignment, another deputy prosecuting attorney filed four charges of second-degree theft against Mau in First Circuit Court.

Three years later, Judge Karen Nakasone dismissed the charges with prejudice, ruling that there was a lack of probable cause and finding significant irregularities in the investigation and prosecution of Mau.

The first charge of conspiracy against Kaneshiro and the other defendants includes honest services wire fraud based on the “material scheme and artifice to defraud the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii, and its citizens their right to the honest services of Kaneshiro through a quid pro quo bribery” and the use of interstate communications to execute the offense.

It also includes federal program bribery charges against Kaneshiro for soliciting and/or accepting the bribe and the MAI defendants for proffering it, both with the expectation of Kaneshiro’s reciprocal actions against Mau.

The indictments are the latest fruit plucked from an extensive federal investigation into local corruption that has already yielded felony convictions against former deputy prosecutor Katherine Kealoha and former Honolulu police chief Louis Kealoha on numerous charges related to their framing of Katherine Kealoha’s uncle, and the arrest of former Honolulu managing director Roy Amemiya, the city’s former top attorney Donna Leong, and former Honolulu Police Commission member Max Sword for allegedly conspiring to secure Louis Kealoha’s $250,000 retirement package.

Michael Tsai covers local and state politics for Spectrum News Hawaii.