The charges filed against Honolulu businessman Mike Miske and his alleged crew include the most serious crimes alleged to date, including murder, murder for hire, kidnapping, drug dealing, armed robbery, and conspiracy involving most of the underlying charges, along with a broad “racketeering conspiracy” that seems to wrap around the rest of the allegations. Seemingly tacked on at the end is a single count charging Miske with bank fraud for allegedly submitting “materially false documents when applying for a Bank of Hawaii loan between April and July 2017.

But there are a number of other illegal activity itemized in the indictment that are not yet included in the 22 specific counts that are worth noting. These could be added in subsequent superseding indictments, as happened in the corruption prosecution of former Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha and his wife, Katherine Kealoha, then a ranking Honolulu deputy prosecutor.

Money laundering, or “the laundering of illicit proceeds,” is mentioned several times. This involves taking money obtained from criminal activities and, in the first stage, placing it through various means into the legitimate financial system. This is often accomplished by funneling the funds into cash businesses, breaking larger amounts into small amounts that can be deposited into bank accounts without raising attention, paying false invoices submitted by criminal associates. Real estate transactions also provide several different opportunities for laundering.

Here’s a little aside. The term “money laundering” reportedly came from gangster Al Capone’s use of a chain of laundromats which routinely brought in large amounts of cash, a perfect way to add the proceeds of illegal activities to the high volume of cash transactions.

Extortion, or “the collection of extensions of credit by extortionate means.”

Here’s a brief explanation provided by one law firm’s website.

Extortion is a criminal offense that occurs when a person unlawfully obtains money, property, or services from another person or entity by means of particular types of threats. It is not all threats-for example, threatening to file suit unless someone pays you money owed is not extortion. Usually, it is threat of violence or reporting a matter to a public agency or the media that can create allegations of extortion.

It is sometimes referred to as loansharking, “the practice of lending money at exorbitant interest rates, especially when financed and supported by an organized crime network. Loansharking usually involves threatening extortion to get repayment.”

A cash payroll scheme, a term used by federal prosecutors to describe cases where a business uses unreported cash to pay employees in order to avoid paying taxes and workers comp insurance premiums.

Obstruction of justice or witness tampering. According to the indictment:

“Members and associates of the Miske Enterprise committed acts of intimidation and made threats as a means of deterring and punishing any potential witnesses to their crimes and in connection with protecting the Miske Enterprise and its members and associates from detection and prosecution by law enforcement authorities.”

Payroll fraud, “the fraudulent ’employment’ of individuals whose “work” consisted of engaging in acts of violence or fraud on behalf of the Miske Enterprise.”

Other indictable offenses alleged by prosecutors (but not yet charged) include making fraudulent identification documents, the illegal structuring of cash transactions to avoid triggering reporting requirements, making false statements to law enforcement or regulatory agencies, and wire fraud.

Of course, I count myself among those anticipating that federal prosecutors may be able to probe more deeply into public corruption, the links between Miske’s alleged criminal enterprise and the world of politics and government. Some ties were revealed during the Kealoha investigation, but I hope that these will be pursued further in the current prosecution.

As I was researching the history of some of these “minor” types of crimes, I was surprised to find that the Hawaii Crime Commission did an extensive survey of the problem of extortion in 1977-78, which included a mail survey sent to 45,000 small businesses.

The commission used volunteers , including students, senior citizens, and members of several churches, to process the surveys, keeping costs low.

The commission said that despite its outreach efforts, victims remained reluctant to come forward and extortion likely remained an underreported crime.

Although not epidemic, extortion is now an important problem in Hawaii, involving large amounts of money, affeting many types of businesses and professions and ultimately touching every person in the state.

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported on the report when it was published in August 1980.

The study makes the following points:

–Eating and drinking establishments had the highest incidence of reports of extortion among various businesses.

–The Waikiki area had the highest number of extortion reports among the geographical areas with 26 reports. It was followed by the downtown Honolulu area with 19.

–About two-thirds of the businesses claiming to have been extorted never reported the incidents to police.

–About 19 percent of responding businesses said they had heard of other businesses being extorted.

–The businesses most rumored to be under extortion are bars and restaurants, and entertainment and transportation industries.

–The majority of the extortion attempts are said to be either explicitly or implicitly tied with the crime syndicate.

–Prominent types of extortion, mentioned by people responding to the survey, but not in high numbers, include government or law enforcement officials who have the power to withhold licenses or contracts and organized crime figures targeting gambling, prostitution or drug operations.

You have to wonder what a similar survey would find today.