Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke has been indicted for criminal conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, and falsifying candidate committee reports.
Luke was one of five people indicted by an Oʻahu grand jury late this afternoon.
Attorney General Anne Lopez and Supervising Deputy Attorney General David Van Acker appeared before cameras, but did not take questions and did not add to information in the 12-count indictment.
In addition to Luke, Former State Rep. Ryan Yamane was indicted for conspiracy to commit bribery and bribery. Yamane is also the former director of the Department of Human Services, a position he resigned in May.
Ford Fuchigami, deputy director for the Airports Division at the state Department of Transportation, was indicted for conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, and obstruction of justice.
Leo Asuncion Jr., the former Chair of the Public Utilities Commission and a former Luke campaign volunteer, was indicted for falsifying candidate committee reports and obstruction of justice.
And lobbyist and businessman Tobi Solidum was indicted on four counts of conspiracy to commit bribery and three counts of bribery.
The indictment says Solidum “has been continuously absent from the State of Hawaiʻi,” so there is no bail for him.
In the other cases, bail was set for $80,000 for Luke, Fuchigami and Asuncion.
The highest bail was set for Yamane — at $150,000.
Luke, a Democrat, went on indefinite leave in April after her attorney said she was the target of a bribery investigation by the state attorney general.
Federal and state authorities have been investigating a bribery incident from over four years ago. The incident happened in January 2022, when an "influential state legislator" allegedly accepted $35,000 in a paper bag.
Luke previously said she did not take $35,000 in a paper bag, but in 2022 she reported returning two campaign donations from two lobbyists that totaled $10,000. She received the funds at a dinner in January 2022, which fit the description and time period of the $35,000 allegation.
This is a developing story.
