Former Hawaiʻi Public Utilities Commission Chair Leo Asuncion Jr. is another target of the state investigation into possible bribery and campaign finance violations.

The Attorney General’s Office won’t say who has received letters telling them they are the main subjects of the investigation. But Gov. Josh Green confirmed in an interview with Civil Beat on Friday that Asuncion, who resigned last year from the PUC, had been sent a target letter.

“That is my understanding,” Green said. “The obvious main focus has been it being the lieutenant governor. To be frank, I haven’t given a lot of thought beyond that, just because that’s such an impactful development.”

At the governor’s urging, Luke on Thursday went on an unpaid, indefinite leave of absence. The other person to receive a target letter is businessman Tobi Solidum.

In February, Luke acknowledged receiving $10,000 from Solidum and his stepdaughter at a dinner in 2022 that included former Rep. Ty Cullen, who was later convicted of bribery. She said she returned the money once the news about Cullen broke but that the contributions were not reported to the Campaign Spending Commission until recently.

Asuncion was her campaign treasurer during that time frame.

Luke hired a special campaign finance auditor to review her reports and has been filing amended reports in recent weeks that show thousands of dollars in donations that had not previously been reported.

Green said he did not think Asuncion’s abrupt departure from the PUC in November is related to the bribery investigation.

“My understanding was that he was burned out, and this kind of thing hanging over you could burn you out, I’m sure,” he said. “But I had never heard any even rumor that Leo was involved in this. I had no idea that he was connected to lieutenant governor in any way. So that came as a big surprise to me.”

A New ‘Threshold’ In The Investigation

The investigation into Luke centers on $35,000 given to an influential state lawmaker in 2022 while Cullen was present and secretly recording. It surfaced as part of a years-long federal investigation into legislative corruption that ultimately saw Cullen, former Sen. Kalani English and a Honolulu businessman, Milton Choy, convicted and imprisoned for bribery-related charges.

More: FBI Recorded Hawaiʻi Lawmaker Being Given $35,000

Earlier this year, federal prosecutors agreed to hand over information to the AG related to the lawmaker who took the $35,000 after public pressure on the Legislature to do its own investigation increased.

Last week, Luke announced she would no longer seek reelection and a few days later the story broke that she had received a target letter from the AG. She decided to take an unpaid leave and Green appointed Keith Regan, the state comptroller, to fill in as acting lieutenant governor.

“It was a difficult three months, actually, or four months,” Green told Civil Beat Friday, “because I was increasingly aware — just based on what I was reading in your paper and watching on the news and the other newspaper — that it was likely revolving around her.

“I really don’t have any information. In fact, I’m almost certain I have less information than those who have been investigating this for some time as journalists.”

Green said a new “threshold” was reached this week in the investigation, however, that prompted him to speak with Luke about her position with the administration.

“I’ve spoken with the attorney general really almost only about this point, which is, I just need to know if it’s serious enough for anyone in my administration, whether there was some question about maybe it was one of the directors that had come from the Legislature and had been on that tape,” he said. “If it’s serious enough that it’s going to affect our ability to govern, or it’s going to affect a lot of people based on their work, I have to know so that I can then just have a candid conversation.”

That conversation came Thursday morning in his office. On hand was Luke’s attorney, David Louie, and her chief of staff Riley Fujisaki and Green’s senior advisor Will Kane. Green said he did not feel it was his place to ask for Luke’s resignation.

“That wasn’t my call,” he said. “My call is just from my perspective that we have to care for the people, and they have to be assured that they’re getting good decisions made.”

He said that Luke also made the decision to take a leave without pay.

Attorney General Not Giving Update

Green said he did not know where the investigation might lead next, and he said that he did not know that bribery charges are being considered, as Louie said in a statement Wednesday.

Lopez did not release any information Friday about the investigation, despite saying two weeks ago she would have an update on Friday.

“This investigation is ongoing,” her department said in an email to Civil Beat Friday. “To preserve the integrity of the investigative process, the Attorney General is not going to provide further comment. She remains committed to providing the public with information when it is appropriate.”

Asuncion, who could not be reached for comment Friday, joined the three-person PUC in April 2019 and was appointed chair in 2022 by former Gov. David Ige. He brought a more buttoned-down, deliberative style to the job than his predecessor, Jay Griffin, who had been vocal about pushing Hawaiʻi toward its goal of producing all electricity sold in the state with renewable resources by 2045.

Always a subject of criticism and controversy, in part because of its role approving electricity rate increases and implementing the state’s energy policy, the PUC absorbed its share of criticism under Asuncion’s watch. In once instance, after the PUC gave Hawaiian Electric Co. permission to begin a new rate-resetting proceeding, critics said HECO’s proposal sidestepped a state law determining how the utility sets rates. 

In another instance, Asuncion was criticized for hiring someone with no experience regulating electric utilities to a high-level staff post. The staffer, Randy Baldemor, was investigated for allegedly bullying other PUC staff. He was cleared in October after the investigation couldn’t substantiate the allegations.

Asuncion abruptly resigned from the PUC the next month, departing the job seven months before his term was set to end in June. He gave no reason for quitting.

In January, Green appointed Jon Itomura to be the new PUC chair. The Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee approved the appointment April 16. Itomura now awaits a final confirmation vote by the full Senate.

More Unreported Contributions

Luke has filed a flurry of revisions to her past campaign disclosures in recent months, amending dozens of documents covering years of fundraising. 

The changes include more than $17,000 in previously unreported campaign contributions made between July 2022 and May 2025, according to a Civil Beat review of amended contribution reports.

Earlier this year, her campaign retained a consultant to audit contributions and expenses going back to January 2021. In March, the first installment of an audit found that the campaign failed to report $7,800 in contributions in the first half of 2022.

Many of those contributions were originally made during a time that Asuncion served as Luke’s campaign treasurer in charge of overseeing such funds.

How so many contributions went unreported for so long, and whether any of them figure in the investigation, is unclear. Asuncion did not respond to interview requests Thursday and Friday, and Luke’s campaign hasn’t clarified the recent amendments either.

The newly reported contributions that Civil Beat was able to identify included funds from lobbyists, a credit union, business executives and companies that do business before the state and the Legislature.

Many of the reports amended in April were also amended in February and again in March, making it difficult to track all of the changes because of the sheer number of amended filings.

Civil Beat reporters Matthew Leonard and Stewart Yerton contributed to this report