Hawaii's Democratic Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke was indicted on conspiracy and bribery charges for allegedly taking a $35,000 bribe to steer state COVID testing contracts to a connected lobbyist's client — and Gov. Josh Green's demand that she resign only came after the grand jury made it impossible to stay quiet.
The indictment, handed down as part of state Attorney General Anne Lopez's investigation, alleges that lobbyist Tobi Solidum met Luke at a steakhouse in January 2022 and handed her two $5,000 checks made out to her campaign committee, Friends of Sylvia Luke. Solidum represented the National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii, which held state contracts for COVID-19 testing sites that were about to expire. According to prosecutors, Solidum promised Luke a total of $70,000, telling her: "By next week, we'll have 35, so it will be halfway to our 70." Luke's alleged response: "Oh wow. That's terrific."
Solidum was also indicted, along with former state Rep. Ryan Yamane, Transportation Department official Ford Fuchigami, and former Public Utilities Commission official Leo Asunción. All five were swept up in the AG's January probe, which itself grew out of a federal bribery investigation. The breadth of the indictment — a lobbyist, a lawmaker, a transportation official, and a utilities regulator — suggests a pay-to-play network that spanned multiple state agencies.
Luke admitted to taking the two $5,000 checks but denied accepting more and insisted no contribution influenced her lawmaking. "I never granted special favors to a contributor," she wrote on social media, claiming she "prized integrity and honesty above all throughout her career." The indictment tells a different story: Solidum allegedly told another state representative that regarding Luke, "All I gotta do is give her more money now" — an apparent reference to leveraging her upcoming run for lieutenant governor.
Here is the question that matters: Where was Gov. Josh Green? The AG's investigation has been public since January. Luke's name has been in the mix for months. Yet Green only called for her resignation "hours after" the indictment dropped, telling Maui Now that "the lieutenant governor needs to consider formally resigning to address this matter and so that the state of Hawaiʻi can move forward." Consider resigning. Not fire her. Not demand it immediately when the probe went public half a year ago. The machine protects its own until the headlines force its hand.
Follow the money further: COVID testing contracts were among the most lucrative, least scrutinized spending sprees in state history. The National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii landed state deals, and a lobbyist was apparently willing to pay tens of thousands to keep them alive. Who else got paid? What other contracts went to connected players? The federal probe that spawned this state investigation may have more answers coming.
Both the New York Post and Fox News reported the same core facts and quotes from the indictment. Neither pressed the Green timeline — why Hawaii's governor sat silent for months while his lieutenant governor was under active investigation for bribery tied to COVID spending.
The open question is not whether Luke should resign. It is how deep this network runs, how much COVID cash flowed through it, and how many other officials knew and said nothing until a grand jury forced their hand.
