The Department of Justice has indicted three former executives of a U.S. defense contractor, accusing them of making illegal contributions to Sen. Susan Collins’ 2020 re-election campaign.
The indictment handed down Thursday in the District of Columbia names Martin Kao, 48, Clifford Chen, 48, and Lawrence “Kahele” Lum Kee, 52, all of Honolulu, as defendants. They are accused of making unlawful campaign contributions to Collins and her political action committee.
Navatek Vice President Dave Kring, Navatek CEO Martin Kao, Sen. Susan Collins, Front Street President JB Turner and Maggie Craig, Navatek deputy director of operations for Portland, from left, at the Aug. 6, 2019 announcement of an $8 million Navy contract in which Front Street will collaborate with Navatek. Photo courtesy of Sen. Susan Collins’ office
At the time the contributions were made, Kao served as president and CEO for the company, Chen worked as its chief financial officer and Lum Kee as its accountant. The firm in question is identified in the indictment as Company A. The Washington Post reported Thursday that the three men worked for the Martin Defense Group, formerly known as Navatek.
The indictment does not identify the candidate, who is called Candidate A, but Collins’ campaign issued a statement Thursday night acknowledging that the illegal donations were made to Collins and her political action committee.
“As is clear in the indictment, there are no allegations of wrongdoing by the Collins for Senator Campaign,” the campaign said in its statement. “As stated previously, the campaign had absolutely no knowledge of any of the allegations against Mr. Kao or his associates until a search warrant was reported in the press (in May 2021).”
That’s when the FBI announced it was investigating Kao and Chen’s contributions to Collins’ 2020 re-election campaign and to the 1820 PAC, a super PAC that supported her. The Collins for Senator Campaign and the super PAC operate independently of one another.
Donations of that nature constitute violations of federal law that prohibit federal contractors from making political contributions.
In 2021, the Collins for Senator Campaign said she had not ruled out returning the contributions – totaling roughly $45,000 – that were made by eight members of Kao’s family and his staff. On Thursday night, the campaign said that it had instead donated about $60,000 to the Dr. Levesque Elementary School in Frenchville, which was destroyed by fire last summer. The funds were to be used to help rebuild the Aroostook County school, which was recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education.
All three defendants are charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and to make conduit and government contractor contributions, making conduct contributions, and making government contractor contributions, according to the news release issued by the Department of Justice on Thursday. Kao also is charged with two counts of making false statements to the Federal Election Committee.
Kao, Chen and Lum Kee will make their initial court appearance at a later date. If convicted, the defendants face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count. Sentencing will be determined by a federal district court judge.
The defendants created a shell company and used that shell company “to make an illegal contribution to a political action committee supporting the election of a candidate for the U.S. Senate using government contractor funds,” according to the DOJ statement.
The release went on to state that “the defendants also allegedly used family members as conduits to make illegal contributions to the campaign committee of the same candidate, and the reimbursed themselves for those donations using funds obtained from their employer.”
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