Miske must forfeit millions in assets; sentencing set for Nov. 26

After a 99-day jury trial, a federal jury found Michael J. Miske, Jr., 50, of Kailua, Oʻahu, guilty of racketeering conspiracy, murder, and 11 other felony charges on July 18, 2024. On Wednesday, the court determined that as a result of Miske’s conviction of the racketeering conspiracy, he should forfeit a variety of assets to the federal government. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 26, 2024. The case was heard before Chief United States District Judge Derrick K. Watson.

Ten other defendants originally charged with Miske and several others charged in other cases related to this one previously pled guilty to various offenses.

According to the evidence presented at trial, during at least the late 1990s and through June 2020, Miske and other codefendants conspired to conduct and participate in the conduct of the affairs of a racketeering enterprise, the “Miske Enterprise,” through a pattern of racketeering activity. The racketeering activity included acts involving murder, kidnapping, and robbery. It also included acts relating to murder-for-hire, chemical weapons, interference with commerce through robbery and extortion, wire fraud, fraud in connection with identification documents, financial institution fraud, the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act, and obstruction of justice.

During the trial, evidence was produced that from about March 2016 and continuing to about July 30, 2016, Miske conspired with others to kidnap and murder 21-year-old Johnathan Fraser in the belief that Fraser was responsible for Miske’s son’s death as a result of an automobile crash. “In March 2016, Miske instructed a co-conspirator to develop a plan for kidnapping and murdering Fraser and told that co-conspirator that he/she could name the price for carrying out the murder,” according evidence detailed in a Department of Justice news release. “On or about July 30, 2016, Fraser was kidnapped and killed. On that same day, another of Miske’s co-conspirators took Fraser’s significant other on a ‘spa day,’ thereby ensuring that Fraser and his significant other would be separated from each other when Fraser was kidnapped,” the release noted.

“In or about March 2017, Miske and others conspired to release a chemical weapon, namely, chloropicrin, into nightclubs in Honolulu. As part of this conspiracy, chloropicrin was released into two different nightclubs. Miske was also convicted of obstructing justice for the submission of false character letters to the court in support of Miske’s request for pretrial release while this case was pending,” the release states.

The maximum penalties for the charges on which Miske was found guilty are set forth below. The maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress. The actual sentence imposed will be determined by the judge.

After approximately one-and-a-half days of proceedings, the same jury determined that as a result of the conviction of racketeering conspiracy, Miske must forfeit specifically identified property, which included two pieces of real property and $611,123.60 in proceeds from the sale of real property, a Boston Whaler vessel, a fishing vessel, a 2017 Ferrari, $2,521,784.32 in cash from various financial institution accounts, and a cashier’s check for $1,162,826.76.

This conviction is the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, the Criminal Investigation

Division of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, with assistance from the Honolulu Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Coast Guard Investigative Service, the United States Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force, the Cybercrime Lab of the Department of Justice Criminal Division Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center, the Honolulu Fire Department, the Hawaii National Guard, 93rd Civil Support Team, the Office of Investigations–Office of the Inspector General for the Social Security Administration, and the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General. Assistant US Attorneys Mark Inciong, Michel Nammar, KeAupuni Akina, and Aislinn Affinito prosecuted the case and presented it in court.