In January 2022, Hawaii lobbyist Tobi Solidum allegedly handed two $5,000 checks to then-state lawmaker Sylvia Luke at a Morton's The Steakhouse. The checks went to Luke's campaign committee, Friends of Sylvia Luke. In return, according to prosecutors, Luke helped steer state COVID-19 testing contracts to sites operated by the National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii.
Solidum apparently thought the arrangement was going well. "By next week, we'll have 35, so it will be halfway to our 70," he allegedly told Luke, referring to thousands of dollars in campaign contributions. Her response, per the indictment: "Oh wow. That's terrific."
A Hawaii grand jury has now returned a 12-count indictment against Luke — who is currently the state's Lieutenant Governor — charging her with criminal conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, and falsifying candidate committee reports. The total alleged bribe: $35,000 in contributions, with $70,000 promised.
Luke isn't the only one caught in the net. The investigation, led by State Attorney General Anne Lopez, also resulted in indictments of four others: Solidum himself, former state representative Ryan Yamane, Hawaii Transportation Department official Ford Fuchigami, and Leo Asunción, a former official with Hawaii's public utilities commission. Five people, one scheme, all connected to the same pipeline of pandemic money and political favors.
Luke's defense so far has been exactly what you'd expect. "I never granted special favors to a contributor," she said, adding that she "prized integrity and honesty above all throughout her career." The grand jury, which reviewed the evidence under oath, appears to disagree.
Hawaii Governor Josh Green — a fellow Democrat — didn't bother with the usual "let the process play out" dodge. He went straight to the point: "The lieutenant governor needs to consider formally resigning to address this matter." When the governor of your own party tells you to resign the day the indictment drops, the evidence file isn't thin.
The details of this case follow a pattern we've seen across the country since 2020. The pandemic created enormous pots of emergency money with minimal oversight. Testing contracts, PPE procurement, vaccine distribution — billions of dollars flowing through state governments with the urgency of a crisis and the accountability of a yard sale. Politicians who controlled the spigot discovered they could direct the flow and collect a fee for the service.
Luke's alleged scheme wasn't even sophisticated. Checks at a steakhouse. Campaign contributions to a named committee. Conversations where both parties reportedly discussed the dollar amounts out loud. If the indictment's details are accurate, this wasn't a carefully concealed operation — it was two people who assumed nobody would ever look.
That assumption made sense at the time. In 2022, questioning anything related to COVID spending got you labeled a conspiracy theorist. Oversight was treated as obstruction. Accountability was postponed indefinitely because we were "in a crisis." The crisis is over. The receipts aren't going anywhere.