For a decade, Terri Ann Otani made tens of thousands of dollars in donations to political candidates in the names of her family members, according to her relatives.  

During a federal trial that ended last week, Otani’s sister and niece testified that as a corporate secretary for the engineering firm Mitsunaga & Associates Inc., Otani used their names to make contributions that didn’t actually come from them. Prosecutors showed the jury how Otani purchased cashier’s checks with the memo line filled out with her relatives’ names and submitted them to campaigns. 

On Friday, Otani was acquitted of charges that some of those donations amounted to bribery, but the information that came to light in the trial could expose her to new criminal and civil liability.

The staff of the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission is now investigating the matter. For such a large set of alleged straw donations to come to light in a trial is highly unusual, according to commission attorney Gary Kam. 

“The staff is concerned about what’s been going on, what’s been said in the trial,” he said. “We are looking into it.” 

Otani’s lawyer, Doris Lum, did not respond to requests for comment. 

From 2010 to 2020, campaign finance data shows there were 43 donations totaling more than $38,000 that Otani’s relatives testified were false. 

For most of those donations, the five-year statute of limitations for prosecution has passed. But two donations — totalling a combined $1,500, purportedly from Otani’s niece, Jodee Haugh, to then-mayoral candidate Colleen Hanabusa — were recorded in 2020 and fall within the prosecution window. 

If the commission can show Otani was behind those donations, it could refer the matter to local or state prosecutors, Kam said. 

If Otani was found responsible for donations outside of the statute of limitations, the commission could still fine her $1,000 for each false name contribution, Kam said. In this case, based on her family’s testimony, that could amount to $43,000. 

If the commission determines that any of the donations were made under false names, even if the agency can’t determine the true identity of the donor, the donation can be escheated, or seized, from the campaign that received it. The money would then go into the Hawaii election campaign fund, which supports partial public financing of elections. 

Several of the campaigns that received donations supposedly from Haugh, JoAnn Aurello and Aurello’s husband Rodney have depleted their campaign coffers and therefore could not be escheated, according to Kam. 

However, the accounts of Hawaii Senate President Ron Kouchi, Sens. Donovan Dela Cruz and Donna Kim and former Honolulu prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro are still active. The allegedly illicit contributions to their campaigns total $9,500. 

Aside from Otani’s donations, federal prosecutors cited several other instances of alleged false name contributions. 

Sam Hyun, who owns the engineering consulting firm MCE International, admitted under oath to a grand jury that he reimbursed an employee and family members for contributions to Charles Djou in 2016 and Neil Abercrombie in 2010, according to court records. 

Court records also refer to testimony by Gilbert Matsumoto, an accountant for Mitsunaga & Associates, in which he said he received a $6,350 check from a company executive in 2017 for the purpose of making a $6,000 political contribution to Hanabusa at the CEO’s request. Matsumoto later told Civil Beat the check was for consulting work, not a reimbursement for a political donation. 

Whether the commission is open to pursuing prosecution, fines or escheatment in any of these instances is unclear. Commission Chair Neal Herbert did not respond to a request for comment. The commission is planning to discuss the matter in executive session at its next meeting on June 12, Kam said.

Attorney General Anne Lopez's office declined to comment.

"The Department of the Attorney General will not make statements on the existence or status of specific investigations or about possible pending cases," spokeswoman Toni Schwartz said in an email.

Kam said he would recommend taking action. It’s disappointing it took so long to learn of these alleged improprieties, he said. 

“But now that we know about it, let’s see what we can do,” he said. 

Camron Hurt, executive director of Common Cause Hawaii, said it’s important that the state pick up where the feds left off. 

“They should take every necessary action to hold them accountable at a time when trust in our public institutions is so low,” Hurt said. "It is necessary that at a very minimum, everybody be fined, and if we are still in the statute of limitations for the two cases, they must be adjudicated to the letter of the law."

Historically, Hawaii law enforcement agencies haven’t shown much motivation to prosecute campaign finance cases, said Ali Silvert, a former federal public defender. However, he said, the airing of facts in federal court make it hard to ignore.

"Will anything be done to look into this now that we’ve been made so blatantly aware that there are illegal donations being made?" Silvert said. "It's public pressure and public opinion that's going to drive this because it’s right in our face right now. We know this is happening. Is anybody going to respond to it?"