3 accused of extorting Waikiki restaurant

Three men are in federal custody, accused of extortion for allegedly forcing out the owners of The Shack Waikiki and demanding money from a company that did promotional work for liquor companies at the restaurant.

Honolulu police arrested Tory Winward, 44, Curtis Swanson, 44, and Jesse Yoshino, 30, at their homes on Oahu Monday. All three remain in custody pending bail hearings later this week.

The three are accused of repeatedly resorting to threats and violence against the owners to force them out of the business.

Federal prosecutor Thomas Brady is asking the court to order all three men held in custody without the opportunity for bail until the conclusion of their prosecutions.

The FBI and the lawyer who represents The Shack Waikiki in several civil lawsuits against it identified Winward as the restaurant’s head of security.

Bouncers for the restaurant and bar have repeatedly been accused of assault, with four complaints of bouncer violence before the Honolulu Liquor Commission within eight months of its opening in 2008. The Shack and two other popular watering holes, Zanzabar and Black Diamond, are in the Waikiki Trade Center, where police at one time said the most assaults on the island were occurring.

In a lawsuit filed last year against The Shack Waikiki, a former restaurant employee accused Winward of spiking his drink and, while he was unconscious, assaulting him with the help of other security employees. The state charged Winward with assaulting another person in 2009 but later dropped the case.

Other former employees and customers have filed lawsuits against The Shack Waikiki, claiming they were assaulted by restaurant bouncers.

The Shack Waikiki was opened by Andy Lindberg and Brendan Burchfiel, identified only by their initials in the FBI complaint.

According to the FBI, when Lindberg and Burchfiel opened the business on Kuhio Avenue, Winward owned 8 percent of the establishment and was one of two silent minority owners. The other minority owner, whom the FBI identifies only as B.M., owned 1 percent.

Lindberg and Burchfiel also own The Shack Hawaii Kai and Lindberg owns The Shack Mililani, according to state business registration records.

The FBI says Lindberg relinquished his 51 percent ownership in the Waikiki restaurant to Winward for no compensation last September because he feared Winward and Swanson. Lindberg told the FBI he was concerned about Winward’s aggressive accusations of mismanagement and of his criminal reputation.

Lindberg said he witnessed Winward and his associates assault a lone male at the Waikiki Trade Center.

Winward has convictions in state court for drug promotion, robbery, burglary, kidnapping, theft, being a felon in possession of a firearm, carrying or using a firearm to commit a crime and auto theft. In 2003 he said he beat his addiction to drugs and turned his life around.

Swanson has state drug promotion convictions. Yoshino has no felony convictions.

After Lindberg relinquished ownership, Burchfiel told the FBI Winward and his associates began intimidating and assaulting him to take control of the business. An employee told the FBI Winward put associates on the payroll even though they didn’t do any work.

The FBI says security cameras recorded Yoshino attacking and repeatedly punching Burchfiel in the restaurant on Nov. 13 last year and Winward punching Burchfiel during a meeting with other employees in the restaurant’s office on July 30.

Burchfiel told the FBI that Winward instructed the restaurant’s bouncers not to intervene in the Nov. 13 attack.

After the July 30 meeting, the FBI says, Winward informed the restaurant managers that Burchfiel and his wife had been fired.

The FBI said it recorded a telephone conversation between Burchfiel and Winward on Aug. 1 in which Winward tells Burchfiel, "You want me out, f—g pay me."

Two people who own a promotional company that conducted events for liquor companies at The Shack Waikiki told the FBI Swanson and Winward threatened and demanded money from them.

The FBI said it later recorded a telephone conversation between one of the owners of the promotional company and Winward in which Winward accused her of reporting him to authorities and trying to set him up into "threatening you on the phone."

"Allegations of threats, violence, and intimidation of small-business owners are unusual in Hawaii, but the FBI and police will act swiftly when the evidence supports criminal charges," said FBI spokesman Thomas Simon.