Hawaii Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke Indicted on 12 Counts Including Bribery, Conspiracy; Gov. Green Calls for Resignation

An Oahu grand jury handed up a 12-count indictment Friday against Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke and four other people in a public corruption case centered on Hawaii's COVID-19 community testing program, according to Kauai Now and Hawaii Public Radio. Luke is the highest-ranking state elected official ever indicted on corruption charges in Hawaii history, according to Kauai Now.

Gov. Josh Green called on Luke to resign hours after the indictment came down. "The Lieutenant Governor needs to consider formally resigning to address this matter and so that the state of Hawaii can move forward," Green said, according to both Kauai Now and Hawaii Public Radio.

Luke has been on unpaid leave since April 23, after her attorney confirmed she was the target of a bribery investigation, according to Hawaii Public Radio. Former Maui County Managing Director Keith Regan has been serving as acting lieutenant governor since then.

Who Else Was Charged

Four others were indicted alongside Luke: businessman and lobbyist Tobi Solidum, former state Rep. Ryan Yamane, former Department of Transportation airports administrator Ford Fuchigami, and former Public Utilities Commission Chair Leo Asuncion Jr., who also served as treasurer for Luke's campaign, according to all three sources.

Luke faces charges of criminal conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, and falsifying candidate committee reports, according to Hawaii Public Radio. Yamane, the former director of the Department of Human Services who resigned that post in May, was indicted on conspiracy to commit bribery and bribery. Fuchigami faces conspiracy, bribery, and obstruction of justice charges. Asuncion was indicted for falsifying candidate committee reports and obstruction of justice. Solidum faces four counts of conspiracy to commit bribery and three counts of bribery.

Bail was set at $80,000 each for Luke, Fuchigami, and Asuncion, and $150,000 for Yamane, according to Hawaii Public Radio. Solidum, described in the indictment as having been "continuously absent from the State of Hawaii," was denied bail.

The Alleged Scheme

According to Aloha State Daily's account of the indictment, the case centers on a January 20, 2022 meeting at Morton's The Steakhouse in Ala Moana. Solidum, who held financial interests tied to a Department of Health COVID-19 testing contract, allegedly worried the state would cut funding for his testing centers. In a conversation with then-Rep. Ty Cullen, who had turned FBI informant, Solidum reportedly said of Luke, then running for lieutenant governor: "All I gotta do is give her more money."

At the Morton's dinner, Solidum's stepdaughter Kristen Pae allegedly placed an envelope containing two $5,000 checks on the table, one from Solidum and one from Pae, which Luke took, according to Aloha State Daily. Solidum then allegedly told Luke, "By next week we'll have 35, so it will be halfway to our 70." The full indictment alleges Luke agreed to accept a total of $70,000 in contributions in exchange for using her position as House Finance Committee chair to secure state funding for the testing program, according to Kauai Now.

The two checks were deposited into the Friends of Sylvia Luke campaign account the same day Luke arranged a meeting on emergency appropriations for COVID testing, according to Aloha State Daily. The following month, Luke's Finance Committee passed House Bill 2392, appropriating more than $170 million in COVID mitigation funds over two fiscal years.

Asuncion's alleged role was as campaign treasurer who failed to disclose the Solidum and Pae donations and later claimed, in March, that the checks were returned unspent and never deposited, according to Aloha State Daily.

Luke has previously denied taking $35,000 in a paper bag, a description tied to the broader federal investigation into the "influential state legislator," according to Hawaii Public Radio. She has acknowledged accepting two $5,000 checks at the dinner but said she never cashed them.

What Officials Said, and Didn't

Attorney General Anne Lopez and Supervising Deputy Attorney General David Van Acker appeared briefly before reporters but took no questions, according to Kauai Now and Hawaii Public Radio. Lopez credited the Special Investigation and Prosecution Division, created by the Legislature specifically so Hawaii could investigate its own officials, saying the unit "has been working tremendously hard over the last six months to get us here."

Van Acker was explicit about the legal standard that now applies: "At this point, I would remind the public that these are merely allegations. Our criminal system is based upon the presumption of innocence." An indictment is a grand jury's finding that enough evidence exists to bring charges, not a verdict. Luke and her co-defendants are entitled to contest every allegation in court, and none of them has been convicted of anything.

Luke has not had the chance to present her own evidence or cross-examine witnesses in a trial. Her camp's earlier explanation, that she returned the checks and never cashed them, is a direct rebuttal to part of the state's timeline, even if the indictment disputes when and whether that return actually happened.

Green's call for resignation is a political judgment, not a legal one, and he stopped short of saying she must go immediately. No sources indicate Luke has responded publicly to the indictment or announced her plans regarding the lieutenant governor's office. Her legal team has not filed a public response as of this reporting.

The case now moves to Hawaii's First Circuit Court, where arraignment and pretrial proceedings will determine how quickly, if at all, this reaches trial.