The written indictment makes no direct reference to $35,000 being handed over but suggests Solidum, a businessman seeking government money for Covid testing, promised Luke $35,000 \u2014 part of a total of $70,000 to come later\u2014 at a Jan. 20, 2022 dinner at Morton\u2019s Steakhouse. They discussed union support for her campaign, the indictment says. <\/p>\n
\u201cBy next week we\u2019ll have 35 \u2014 so it will be halfway to our 70,\u201d Solidum told Luke, according to the indictment. <\/p>\n
The charges represent a stunning fall from grace for Luke who, before becoming lieutenant governor, served as a state representative for more than two decades, including 10 years as chair of the House Finance Committee. As finance chair, Luke oversaw the state budget with an iron fist and was known for her commitment to following the rules and holding others accountable.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/230809-dc-WildFire-Presser-2629-1024x768.jpg\")
Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke was a longtime state lawmaker before she was elected to the executive branch in 2022. (David Croxford\/Civil Beat\/2023)<\/p>\n
More:\u00a0Hawai\u02bbi AG Investigation Into Political Bribery Case Goes Before Grand Jury<\/a><\/p>\n Yamane is alleged to have taken thousands from Solidum while trying to secure funds for Solidum\u2019s Covid testing contracts. In a text message cited in the indictment, Solidum told Yamane: \u201chave 1500 and wanted to pick up another 1k here. Mel will leave cash in Manila for you.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cIf we\u2019re looking at the most culpable individual factually, we believe that is Ryan Yamane,\u201d Deputy Attorney General David Van Acker said in court.<\/p>\n Solidum also allegedly gave money to Fuchigami, including a $7,000 check on Jan. 30, 2022 to Fuchigami, who was working for the Senate Ways and Means Committee at the time. Two days later, Fuchigami, Solidum and Yamane met to discuss emergency appropriations to the health department. <\/p>\n Van Acker asked the court to set bail at $100,000 for Luke, based on the severity of the allegations while recognizing she is not a flight risk. The judge reduced that to $80,000. Luke surrendered to law enforcement Friday evening and posted bail.<\/p>\n Gov. Josh Green had urged Attorney General Anne Lopez in recent weeks to wrap the investigation up quickly. Green also tried to distance himself from Luke, and in February canceled a pre-planned trip to Washington, D.C. to avoid leaving the state in Luke\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n On Friday afternoon, he called on Luke, who has been on administrative leave, to step down. <\/p>\n \u201cThe Lieutenant Governor needs to consider formally resigning to address this matter and so that the state of Hawai\u02bbi can move forward,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Yamane was Green\u2019s director of the Department of Human Services until recently. He suddenly resigned<\/a> as the state investigation seemed to close in on him. <\/p>\n Solidum is a local businessman, lobbyist and longtime consultant to the National Kidney Foundation of Hawai\u02bbi. In that role, he helped arrange tens of millions of dollars in Covid testing contracts during the pandemic, including for a mobile test site at the Honolulu airport. Court records show Solidum consulting business was paid more than $7 million for that Covid testing work, which overcharged the state<\/a> for tests, and an entity tied to his stepdaughter, Kristen Pae, received a $1 million dividend. <\/p>\n In Solidum\u2019s case, Acker asked Judge Ronald Johnson for a warrant for his arrest without bail, which was granted. He said prosecutors have evidence he left the country in 2025 and lives in the Philippines. Solidum divested himself of his real estate holdings, the prosecutor said, and moved substantial funds offshore.<\/p>\n Asunci\u00f3n is a former chair of Hawai\u02bbi Public Utilities Commission, a position from which he abruptly resigned last year. He was also Luke\u2019s campaign treasurer. <\/p>\n Fuchigami was appointed Green in 2023 to be deputy director of the Hawai\u02bbi Department of Transportation airports division and is currently the airports administrator.<\/p>\n From 2019 to sometime in 2021, Fuchigami held roles in the DOT that gave him oversight of the distribution of Covid relief funds and contracts. Later, he worked for the state Senate as budget chief to Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, the chairman of the Senate money committee that oversees the annual budget. Fuchigami is a longtime government aide, including to former Gov. David Ige.<\/p>\n Solidum and Fuchigami have ties in other areas too.<\/p>\n Eye witnesses identified Fuchigami\u00a0and Solidum as regular attendees of clandestine fundraising parties<\/a> over the years that brought together state officials, including those at the airports, with contractors seeking to do business with the state.<\/p>\n Businessman Milton Choy, his family members, and Solidum contributed more than $34,000 around the time of those events, according to data compiled by the New York Times and Civil Beat in 2024 for an investigation of airport contractors. In 2015, Luke was among the politicians who benefitted from such gatherings.<\/p>\n Friday\u2019s charges stem from a document, first revealed publicly by Civil Beat<\/a> last year, that exposed the alleged $35,000 transaction. The document outlined the ways in which Rep. Ty Cullen, Luke\u2019s former vice chair on the House Finance Committee, helped the FBI after his own bribery arrest. And it described a bribery suspect providing $35,000 to an \u201cinfluential\u201d lawmaker for a campaign.<\/p>\n The state launched an investigation into the $35,000 interaction amid intense public pressure<\/a> on Lopez to open a probe. The AG initially said she would not investigate because the case was in the federal government\u2019s hands, but she switched course in January.\u00a0<\/p>\n At a brief press conference Friday afternoon, Lopez thanked the members of her office\u2019s Special Investigation and Prosecution Division, which was created by the Legislature in 2022 to investigate corruption, fraud, white collar crime and human trafficking.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom 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,\u201d Lopez said. The Special Investigation and Prosecution Division \u201chas been working tremendously hard over the last six months to get us here.\u201d<\/p>\n She did not take questions from reporters.<\/p>\n U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson had said last year the $35,000 was given in a paper bag<\/a>, but the indictment makes no mention of that much money actually being handed over, in a bag or otherwise. Asked to explain that, Attorney General spokeswoman Toni Schwartz said: \u201cThe indictment has the information we can release at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Give Her More Money\u2019<\/p>\n The 30-page indictment covers a period between February 2020 to April 2022. It describes how Solidum wrote a check to Fuchigami to influence budget appropriations in 2022 and gave cash and checks to Yamane in 2020.<\/p>\n The indictment says Luke agreed to accept the $70,000 promised by Solidum \u201cwith the intent to use the power of her elected position\u201d to fund the Covid testing efforts of the National Kidney Foundation of Hawai\u02bbi. <\/p>\n Such amounts from a single source far exceed individual contribution limits in Hawai\u02bbi. But it\u2019s possible that Solidum planned to collect those donations from other sources, a common practice known as bundling, as a way to gain influence with specific lawmakers. In the same conversation, Solidum mentions a fundraiser, a common setting for campaign cash bundling. <\/p>\n In early 2022, Solidum had been seeking more state funds to keep the pricey community testing sites run by the National Kidney Foundation of Hawai\u02bbi operational. He told Cullen during a conversation a couple days before at the Elk\u2019s Club in Waik\u012bk\u012b that \u201che was out \u2018like $11,000,000,\u2019\u201d according to the indictment.<\/p>\n Solidum wanted an emergency appropriation, and invited Cullen to a dinner with Luke at Morton\u2019s. Luke was \u201crunning for LG now,\u201d Solidum said. \u201cAll I gotta do is give her more money.\u201d<\/p>\n On Jan. 20, 2022, Cullen had dinner with Luke, Solidum and Solidum\u2019s stepdaughter, Kristen Pae, in a private dining area of Morton\u2019s Steakhouse in Ala Moana Shopping Center. Cullen was recording for the FBI. <\/p>\n Pae handed Luke two $5,000 checks from her and Solidum, written to her campaign.<\/p>\n Luke accepted the money but failed to report the $10,000 in contributions as required until years later when Civil Beat asked about them.\u00a0Luke has maintained she never accepted $35,000 from any one person. <\/p>\n Luke said earlier this year that she tried to return that money after Cullen was arrested because she was \u201cuncomfortable\u201d keeping it. She has since admitted to numerous campaign finance errors, and the Hawai\u02bbi Campaign Spending Commission identified many more.<\/p>\n At the Jan. 20, 2022 meeting, Solidum told Luke $70,000 was \u201cwhat we committed so we gonna follow through that commitment,\u201d according to the indictment. He also alluded to obtaining support for Luke from labor unions.<\/p>\n Solidum then asked Luke if she could push the state Disease Outbreak and Control Division under the health department to release more funds for the mobile testing labs.<\/p>\n The next day, Luke had Rep. Linda Ichiyama, who led a House committee overseeing the state\u2019s pandemic response, schedule a meeting to talk about emergency appropriations. At that meeting on Jan. 25, Luke discussed emergency appropriations to the health department and the department\u2019s ability to pay for Covid testing.<\/p>\n Later that month, on Jan. 30, Solidum wrote a $7,000 check to Fuchigami, who was then working for the Senate Ways and Means Committee. They met to discuss an emergency appropriation to the health department several days later.<\/p>\n The vehicle to advance<\/a> funding for the Covid testing, which was approved by Luke and other lawmakers, was introduced by Yamane.<\/p>\n Yamane and Solidum had been in touch for a couple years at that point. In a Feb. 18, 2020 text exchange, Solidum told Yamane that he wanted to give him money, that included multiple checks and cash. They met later that day near a parking space that appears to be in the basement of the State Capitol.<\/p>\n The indictment lists numerous other instances where Solidum arranged to give Yamane money. That includes an event in August 2021 that Yamane hosted. In November of that year, Yamane provided Solidum with information on a rival Covid company.<\/p>\n In Feb. 2022, Yamane requested amendments to a bill that provided additional funds for the Covid testing sites. They also had a text exchange on Feb. 8, 2022 about Cullen and English being charged by the feds.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMight not be good to be seen with me,\u201d Yamane wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n Prosecutors also allege that Fuchigami falsely stated that he never received money from Solidum.<\/p>\n Grand Jury Convenes <\/p>\n The indictments followed a day of testimony that began Friday morning, when high-profile witnesses filed into the grand jury room with their attorneys.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Cullen, who was released from federal prison<\/a> in 2024 after serving 11 months on bribery charges, arrived early before the courthouse even opened, with his attorney Birney Bervar. He said nothing as he left the grand jury room.\u00a0<\/p>\n Other witnesses included Tony Baldomero, a former staff member at the Hawai\u02bbi Campaign Spending Commission; Pae, accompanied by heavy-hitter defense attorney Tommy Otake; and Cathy Ross of the Hawai\u02bbi Department of Health, represented by attorney Eric Seitz.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ross is a former deputy health director whose division oversaw an office that handled procurement and contracts. As of February, Ross was still employed by the state as a human resource specialist, according to salary data.<\/p>\n Ross and Seitz left the courtroom just after 11 a.m. Friday and declined to comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n The health department ultimately granted millions of dollars in Covid testing contracts to the National Kidney Foundation of Hawai\u02bbi, and the City and County of Honolulu similarly awarded millions in contracts to the foundation to help prop up mobile testing labs.\u00a0Those\u00a0contracts were arranged<\/a>\u00a0by Solidum. <\/p>\n The kidney nonprofit, in turn, sold overpriced Covid tests<\/a> to Hawai\u02bbi residents \u2014 up to $166 per test. The national median price for a test at the time was $62 for insured patients, according to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker<\/a>, an online tool that monitors health care data.<\/p>\n Solidum has not responded to Civil Beat\u2019s multiple attempts to reach him.<\/p>\n Over the course of the Kidney Foundation\u2019s testing program, Solidum\u2019s company, GeoPolicy Development Group, earned more than $7 million in consulting fees paid by the foundation\u2019s for-profit subcontractor, Capture Diagnostics. An entity tied to Solidum also got a $1 million dividend for investing in Capture Diagnostics, according to court records. <\/p>\n Soon after, trusts linked to his stepdaughter purchased million-dollar properties in Kaka\u02bbako and K\u0101ne\u02bbohe. <\/p>\n Sign up for our FREE morning newsletter and face each day more informed.<\/p>\n Sign Up<\/p>\n \n Sorry. That’s an invalid e-mail.\n <\/p>\n \n Thanks! We’ll send you a confirmation e-mail shortly.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UPDATE: Gov. Green calls on Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke to resign. Prosecutors believe former state Rep. Ryan Yamane…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-783541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Department](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/241118-kf-Waiawa-Correctional-Facility-Visit-Center-200-1024x682.jpg\")
Ryan Yamane was the director of human services before he abruptly resigned. (Kevin Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2024)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/DSC04133-1024x910.jpg\")
David Van Acker is prosecuting the case as the head of a special investigations division in the AG\u2019s office (Craig Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.civilbeat.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Beyond-the-Headline-Corruption-in-Hawaii-2-1024x512.png\")
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Tobi Solidum was paying off public officials, according to today\u2019s indictment. (Hawaii News Now\/2022)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Ford-Fuchigami-DOT-1024x683.jpg\")
Ford Fuchigami is a longtime government aide. (Nathan Eagle\/Civil Beat\/2017)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/today-1024x684.jpeg\")
Ty Cullen, left, arrives at First Circuit Court with his lawyer Birney Bervar Friday morning. (Craig Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/DSC04037-1024x672.jpg\")
Kristen Pae, who donated $5,000 to Sylvia Luke in 2022, appeared before a grand jury on Friday with defense attorney Tommy Otake. (Craig Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n![\"Civil](\"https:\/\/www.civilbeat.org\/wp-content\/themes\/becivil\/dist\/images\/logo10.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/p>\n