A civil complaint alleging that Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke violating campaign spending laws will go to the state Attorney General for potential prosecution.
Last week, the Hawai‘i Campaign Spending Commission published a complaint accusing Luke and her campaign team of 12 different violations of campaign finance laws during the 2022 election.
On Wednesday, the Commission moved to refer their complaint to the state office of the Attorney General, which is already conducting a separate investigation into financial impropriety by Luke, tied to the infamous paper bag full of $35,000 that was the subject of an FBI investigation.
The commission’s complaint accuses Luke, her husband Michael Luke, campaign treasurers Emmanuel Zibakalam, Leodoloff Asuncion Jr., and Matthew Sasaki, deputy treasurer Kalowena Komeiji, and the Friends of Sylvia Luke of mishandling campaign funds.
The complaint includes allegations that Luke signed checks for her candidate committee instead of a treasurer, that her treasurers signed checks for the committee despite no longer being listed as treasurers — some of which were to the former treasurers themselves — and that the group failed to accurately report campaign expenditures to the commission.
The complaint concluded with two options: either the Commission concludes that a violation of law likely took place and refer the matter to the Attorney General; or the Commission makes its own preliminary determination, fines Luke and her associates $28,300 and orders them to correct their campaign spending reports within 20 days.
On Wednesday, the Commission voted for the former option. The vote was unanimous, although Commission Vice Chair Danton Wong recused himself from proceedings Wednesday, citing a conflict of interest based on prior donations he made to Luke.
Eunice Park, general counsel for the Commission, said the extent of the alleged impropriety cannot be attributed to technical errors, particularly given Luke’s extensive political career. She said Luke had “ample opportunity” to correct the violations in the four years since her election, but did not.
Attorney David Louie, who represents Luke and the Friends of Sylvia Luke, spoke briefly before the Commission, but only to decline comment.
Fellow Attorney Randall Hironaka, representing Michael Luke, Komeiji and Sasaki, asked the Commission if his clients could be left off the complaint because, he said, the complaint does not allege any criminal activity by his clients, merely that untoward activity was made without their authorization.
Nonetheless, Park told Hironaka that it will be up to the Attorney General to determine the criminality of anyone named in the complaint.
Luke’s campaign finances from 2022 have come under heavy scrutiny this year as fallout continues from an FBI corruption investigation.
That investigation had previously alleged that former Hawai‘i Rep. Ty Cullen — who had turned informant for the agency — oversaw a transaction between an unknown man and “an influential state legislator” involving the $35,000 in 2022. In February, Luke denied any involvement in that transaction, but admitted that she had accepted two $5,000 checks during a 2022 dinner with former Cullen.
That admission — Luke claimed she never cashed the checks, but never reported the contributions — led to further investigations of Luke’s 2022 campaign finances. In the midst of the furor, Luke announced in April she will not run for reelection this year, and days later announced she would take an indefinite leave of absence, which has continued to this day.
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