Update: Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke, four others indicted on bribery, corruption charges; Governor calls for Luke’s resignation

An Oʻahu grand jury indicted Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke and four others on Friday in a sweeping public corruption case tied to the state’s COVID-19 community testing program. Hours later, Gov. Josh Green called for her formal resignation.

“The lieutenant governor needs to consider formally resigning to address this matter and so that the state of Hawaiʻi can move forward,” Green said in response to a request for comment on the grand jury action.

Luke has been on an unpaid leave of absence since April 23 when it was revealed that she was a target of a bribery investigation. Former Maui County Managing Director Keith Regan is the acting lieutenant governor.

Earlier, during a brief news conference, Department of the Attorney General officials made a brief statement.

“For years, people in Hawaiʻi have wondered, why can’t we investigate and prosecute our own public officials for corruption? This is the reason why the Legislature created the Special Investigation and Prosecution Division,” Attorney General Anne Lopez told reporters. “From the outset of this investigation, I have repeated that we have a commitment to following the facts to where they lead, no matter how long it takes to get there. The SIPD has been working tremendously hard over the last six months to get us here.”

Supervising Deputy Attorney General David Van Acker said: “As you folks know, the Oahu grand jury returned an indictment charging five individuals spanning 12 counts… At this point, I would remind the public that these are merely allegations. Our criminal system is based upon the presumption of innocence… [that] calls for maintaining that presumption of innocence throughout the litigation phase of this case.”

No questions were taken; Van Acker told reporters follow-up inquiries should be emailed.

The 12-count indictment, filed in First Circuit Court, charges Luke, businessman Tobi Solidum; former state Rep. Ryan Yamane; Ford Fuchigami, a former top staff member in former Gov. David Ige’s administration; and former Public Utilities Commission Chair Leo Asuncion with offenses ranging from bribery and conspiracy to obstruction of justice and campaign finance fraud.

Prosecutors allege Solidum, who built lucrative financial interests around a state Department of Health COVID-19 testing contract, spent more than two years funneling money and campaign contributions to Luke, Yamane and Fuchigami in exchange for their help securing continued state funding for his testing operation.

The indictment alleges that Luke, then House Finance Committee chair, accepted $10,000 in campaign contributions from Solidum and/or agreed to accept a total of $70,000 in campaign contributions from him “with the intent to use the power of her elected position to provide funding to (the state Department of Health) for community testing for COVID-19.”

The 30-page indictment centers on a Jan. 20, 2022, meeting in a private dining area at Morton’s The Steakhouse at the Ala Moana Center in Honolulu, where Solidum and an associate put an envelope on a table for Luke. The envelope contained two $5,000 checks written out to the Friends of Sylvia Luke. Luke is alleged to have said, “Oh, thank you.” Then, she picked up the envelope and put it in her handbag.

According to the indictment: Solidum told Luke, “By next week we’ll have 35-so it will be halfway to our 70.” Luke responded, “Oh wow” and “That’s terrific.”

Solidum said, “So I’ll get you your 70 but just gotta get to that point okay? It’s our fundraiser.”

Luke said, “That’s like the last thing you should be … Solidum said, “No, what you talking about? That was what we committed so we gonna follow through that commitment.”

Also, during the meeting on Jan. 20, Solidum discussed obtaining union support for Luke’s campaign for lieutenant governor. He said he would be providing additional campaign contributions.

Towards the end of the meeting, Solidum told Luke, “We’ll follow through hte 70,000 at least.” Solidum told Luke,’ “. . we’ll give you other checks . . . and like I said, we’ll fulfill our commitment . . . ” Luke said, “Yeah, no thank you.” Solidum responded, “You’re welcome Lieutenant Governor. [Laughs] And chair Cullen of whatever committee you want to be.”

The next day, the $5,000 checks were deposited into the Friends of Sylvia Luke bank account.

Weeks later, Luke’s committee advanced House Bill 2392, an emergency appropriation bill benefiting funding for the Health Department’s COVID testing program. The full House passed the measure.

Yamane, who left his post as director of the state Department of Human Services in May after being questioned in the probe, is accused of accepting cash and checks from Solidum on multiple occasions between 2020 and 2022 while introducing and shepherding the same appropriation bill through the Legislature.

Among the grand jury charges is an allegation that Solidum texted Yamane on Nov. 17, 2021, in an effort to get a rival COVID testing company fined. “Yamane furthered that effort by sending information that Solidum provided about the rival COVID testing company to DOH,” the indictment states.

Fuchigami, now the state Department of Transportation’s Airports Division administrator, is accused of accepting a $7,000 check from a Solidum-controlled company while working for the Senate Ways and Means Committee — and later lying to investigators about it.

Asuncion, a Luke campaign volunteer treasurer, is charged with falsifying campaign spending reports to conceal the contributions and making false statements to investigators.

Luke took an unpaid leave of absence from office in April after receiving a target letter from the Attorney General’s Special Investigation and Prosecution Division and ended her re-election campaign.

Count 1 of the indictment alleges bribery against Luke, Solidum, Yamane and Fuchigami. The first count alone covers more than 18 pages and includes dozens of alleged overt acts.

The offense of bribery occurs if a person confers, offers or agrees to confer any pecuniary benefit upon a public servant with the intent to influence that public servant’s vote, opinion, judgment, exercise of discretion or other action in the public servant’s official capacity.

In this alleged bribery conspiracy, Solidum would make an agreement with Luke, Yamane and Fuchigami in which Solidum would provide a pecuniary benefit to Luke, Yamane and Fuchigami, who were public servants, with the intent to influence their official actions.

The Morton’s steakhouse dinner was preceded two days earlier by a Jan. 18, 2022, meeting at the Elk’s Lodge in Waikiki between Solidum and Ty Cullen, the former Hawaiʻi state representative and vice chair of the House Finance Committee who was sentenced to two years in federal prison for honest services wire fraud. The charge stemmed from his acceptance of bribes in return for performing official legislative acts on behalf of Honolulu businessman Milton Choy.

At the Elk’s Lodge meeting, Solidum told Cullen that COVID was still an issue in early 2022 and he had recently met with Health Department Deputy Director Cathy Ross. Solidum told Cullen the Health Department was running out of money for COVID testing because the department never got money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Saying that the Health Department was going to “cut us off by February,” Solidum brought up the prospect of using state resiliency funds to continue funding COVID community testing sites, the indictment states. Solidum said it would cost $54 million to maintain 25 COVID testing sites for one year, and that did not include the cost of COVID tests and labor.

“Solidum said that he spoke to Luke about using a different formula to fund community testing and that they were supposed to meet,” the indictment states. “Solidum asked Cullen if he wanted to join Solidum and Luke for dinner and Cullen agreed.”

The indictment alleges that Solidum said that the Health Department should make a request to “you guys” or to the governor for an emergency appropriation. Solidum said it took a long time to set up the community testing sites and that he was out “like $11,000,000.” Solidum confirmed that Cullen would join Solidum, Luke and Kristen Pae at Morton’s on Jan. 20, 2022, for a 5:30 p.m. dinner.

“Solidum told Cullen that Luke was ‘Running for LG now. All I gotta do is give her more money,’ ” the indictment states.

Regarding House Bill 2392, Yamane chaired the House Committee on Health, Human Services & Homelessness, and wrote in a committee report on the measure that:

“Your Committee finds that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), continues to evolve with time, manifesting new variant strains. Each new variant poses a potential threat of increased transmissibility, increased severity, or decreased ability of available vaccines and therapeutic agents to effectively combat the virus. Your Committee believes that high vaccination coverage throughout the State is the best available tool to mitigate any impact new variants may cause. However, your Committee notes that in order to achieve this, the Department of Health requires logistical support for its continued efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This measure is intended to continue the Department of Health’s efforts at addressing the COVID-19 pandemic by providing funds to ensure the safety of Hawaiʻi’s residents.”

Yamane also spoke in “strong support” of the emergency appropriation bill for spending $171 million on the House floor on April 12, 2022. “The state faced a huge health crisis two years ago, and we are continuing to address that.”

“Mr. Speaker, we became aware of the concerns about addressing the needs of the people of Hawaiʻi, especially our keiki and our küpuna,” Yamane said. “At that point, we worked with BNF and the Department of Health to make sure that one, we took care of the services for the people of Hawaiʻi. That required money to be addressed and to continue the services to address this pandemic.”

According to the indictment, Solidum wrote a $7,000 check to Fuchigami on Jan. 30, 2022. The check was issued from a Central Pacific Bank account belonging to Geopolicy Development Group LLC, a company Solidum controlled. Fuchigami, at the time, was employed by the Hawaiʻi State Senate Committee on Ways and Means. Fuchigami deposited the check the next day into his American Savings Bank account.

Fuchigami also allegedly met with Solidum and Yamane to discuss the emergency appropriation to the Health Department. He also faces charges of making a material false statement and obstruction of justice.

In Count 10 of the indictment, between Jan. 20 and July 14, 2022, Luke and Asuncion are accused of filing a report with the state Campaign Spending Commission that failed to include Solidum’s $5,000 and Pae’s $5,000 campaign contributions to the Friends of Sylvia Luke.

Asuncion is accused of making a false statement and of obstruction of justice in statements he made to the Department of the Attorney General’s Special Investigation and Prosecution Division.

The grand jury returned the true bill Friday.

The indictment says Solidum has been absent from the state since at least the end of 2024.