My earlier attempts to track any campaign contributions made by Honolulu businessman and alleged gang leader Michael Miske didn’t get very far. My review of contributions to candidates for state and local offices found Miske associated with only three contributions between 2006 and 2020.

Two of those contributions (totaling $3,000) went to Donna Kim in 2009 and 2011, and another $500 went to Heidi Tsuneyoshi in 2018. That’s not the kind of contribution record that suggests any attempt to gain undue influence on the candidates.

I was able to glean a bit more information from a review of contributions to federal candidates via the Federal Election Commission website.

Here are the contributions that I could find associated with Miske.

He gave $1,000 to Senator Dan Inouye’s campaign in March 2012, and $2,600 to Donna Mercado Kim for Congress in December 2013.

Once again, these amounts, while more than he had previously contributed to candidates, aren’t large enough to raise eyebrows.

But they are interesting due to the timing. All but one of the contributions were made in May 2018. This was more than 18-months after Miske suspected he was the target of a federal investigation, and almost a year after Miske retained criminal defense attorney, Lynn Panagakos, to represent him. His suspicions about a federal investigation had been confirmed when a search warrant was executed to seize his Boston Whaler (in August 2017) as part of a “murder for hire” investigation.

So while Mike Miske was under intense federal scrutiny, and the federal investigation was already encumbering many of his personal and business bank accounts, he suddenly became more active as a campaign contributor, giving a total of $2,500 to Ernie Martin’s congressional campaign. Another $1,000 was given in the name of Delia-Anne Fabro, his late-son’s wife, who business registration records now listed as the person running Kamaaina Termite and several other Miske-controlled businesses. Miske also contributed another $1,000 to Sen. Donna Kim’s congressional campaign.

Martin ended up in sixth place among the seven candidates in the Democratic primary for the congressional seat, getting only 3.2 % of the vote, while Kim placed 3rd with 18.2%. Ed Case won the primary, and went on to win in the 2018 General Election to become our congressman from Hawaii’s 1st Congressional district.

All but one of these contributions were made in May 2018. On May 29, 2018, the FBI offered a $20,000 reward for information regarding the disappearance of Jonathan Fraser, who had been the best friend of Miske’s son, Caleb. The two young men were involved in a serious automobile crash in late 2015. Caleb Miske died several months later of injuries received in the accident. Fraser survived. Several months later, Fraser left his home and was never seen again.