Hawaii News Now reporter (and former Honolulu Star-Bulletin colleague) Rick Daysog got the jump on the charges filed this week against a Honolulu woman who is alleged to have been a key player in a a secret lobbying and influence-peddling scheme on behalf of a man believed to have been involved in the theft of a reported $4.5 billion from a Malaysian government investment fund (“Foreign lobbying scandal entangles well-known political fundraiser in Hawaii“).

The 39-page document laying out charges reads like the plot of a free-wheeling adventure novel.

The government alleges Honolulu resident Nickie Lum Davis was a consultant who helped put together a deal in which a top fundraiser for the Republican National Committee and President Trump’s 2016 election campaign was paid to lead a secret back-channel lobbying campaign to get the Trump administration to drop its pursuit of Jho Taek Low, an international fugitive suspected of being the mastermind of the huge Malaysian theft.

Davis had the personal contacts that enabled her to be the intermediary between Elliott Broidy, who held top spots on the Republican National Committee’s Finance Committee in 2008 and again in 2016, and Jho Low.

During the period around the 2008 presidential election, Davis was married to Joe Shapira, a digital entrepreneur credited with creating the Jewish dating website, JDate. Nickie Lum Davis converted to Judaism, and became a socially prominent fundraiser for Republican and Jewish political causes, and a major fundraiser for John McCain’s presidential bid. Davis worked with Broidy and others in top Republican circles during that period, and also was involved in several recording and television production businesses in the Los Angeles area.

As a result of the crossover experiences, Davis was able to make contact with Low through Haitian rapper Pras Michel, a founding member of the Fugees, who was known to be a friend of Low. She then helped negotiate the terms of the eventual deal between Low and Broidy to lobby the president to quash the federal investigation, according to hacked emails leaked to the media several years ago, and quoted in the charges filed this week.

According to the federal charges, Low paid a total of $8.5 million to Michel, of which Broidy received $6 million and Davis $1.7 million.

However, Broidy failed to register as a lobbyist for a foreign interest, as required by federal law. Davis is charged with aiding and abetting that crime.

If Davis is convicted, the government says it will seek the forfeiture of “of money representing property, real or personal, which constitutes or is derived from proceeds traceable to said violation(s).”

Here’s an overview of the complicated international background as it was explained in the introduction of a 2016 federal civil lawsuit related to the stolen funds.

This is a civil action in rem to forfeit assets involved in and traceable to an international conspiracy to launder money misappropriated from Malaysia Development Berhad (“1MDB”), a strategic investment and development company wholly-owned by the government of Malaysia.

The United States seeks forfeiture of property located in the United States and abroad, including in the United Kingdom and Switzerland…on the ground that it was derived from violations of U.S. law, and…on the ground that it is property involved in one or more money laundering offenses….

1MDB was ostensibly created to pursue investment and development projects for the economic benefit of Malaysia and its people, primarily relying on the issuance of various debt securities to fund these projects. However, over the course of an approximately four-year period, between approximately 2009 and at least 2013, multiple individuals, including public officials and their associates, conspired to fraudulently divert billions of dollars from 1MDB through various means, including by defrauding foreign banks and by sending foreign wire communications in furtherance of the scheme, and thereafter, to launder the proceeds of that criminal conduct, including in and through U.S. financial institutions.

The funds diverted from 1MDB were used for the personal benefit of the co-conspirators and their relatives and associates, including to purchase luxury real estate in the United States, pay gambling expenses at Las Vegas casinos, acquire more than $200 million in artwork, invest in a major New York real estate development project, and fund the production of major Hollywood films. 1MDB maintained no interest in these assets and saw no returns on these investments.

The behind-the-scenes lobbying alleged in the charges against Davis was aimed at quashing that ongoing federal action.

Davis grew up in Hawaii, and is a Punahou graduate, and a graduate of Princeton. Since returning to Honolulu in 2015, she has been active at Central Union Church, serving on the Church Council, and as chair of its preschool ministry committee, according to church records online.

Her parents, Eugene and Nora Lum, were active in Hawaii politics in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Before leaving Hawaii in 1992, Nora Lum was a business consultant specializing in helping foreign investors find investment opportunities. At that time, Lum and her husband, attorney Eugene K.H. Lum, also controlled Cal-Pacific International, half-owner of the controversial Akahi golf course that had been proposed in South Kona.

After moving to the mainland in 1992, the couple became major Democratic campaign contributors, developed close ties with the Clinton administration, and gained national prominence among Asian-American Democrats.

In 1997, the couple agreed to plead guilty to making illegal campaign contributions to Senator Edward Kennedy. They were the first to face criminal charges related to improper fundraising during and after the 1992 elections.

LVMS Group, Inc., a consulting firm, was formed in August 2014 by Nora and Gene Lum, along with Nora’s sister, Kathy Nojima, and Trisha Lum, Nickie Lum Davis’ older sister, state business registration records show. LVMS was registered at a Kolohala Street address, also reported as Davis’ residence at the time.

Davis is also listed in business records as president of LNS Capital, formed in 2014 “to invest and to raise capital for projects in a variety of fields, including, but not limited to the fields of entertainment, hospitality, real estate, environmental and defense industries.” Her husband, Larry Davis, is listed as chairman and director.

Davis and her husband purchased a $3.5 million Kahala home in March 2018 through several related family trusts, real estate records show. The couple later took out a $2.5 million mortgage loan from Priority Financial Network in March 2020.

See:

“Trump Fund-Raiser Received Laundered Foreign Money, Prosecutors Say,” NY Times, November 30, 2018.

‘Ex-Justice Official Helped 1MDB’s Jho Low Funnel Dirty Money,” Bloomberg.com, November 30, 2018.

“Trump Ally Was in Talks to Earn Millions in Effort to End 1MDB Probe in U.S.,” Wall Street Journal, March 1, 2018.

“Ex-Texas congressman imprisoned after fraud. TRANSCRIPT: 05/24/2018. The Rachel Maddow Show,” MSNBC.com, May 24, 2018.

“Federal Authorities Raided Trump Fundraiser’s Office in Money Laundering Probe,” ProPublica, March 18, 2019.