Question: Whatever happened to the federal criminal case against the businessman accused of illegally importing aerial fireworks, which were among the confiscated fireworks that exploded in a Waikele storage bunker last April, killing five men?
Answer: After several procedural delays, jury selection in the case against Gifford Koon Fo Chang is scheduled to begin Aug. 28 in U.S. District Court in Honolulu.
Chang, 45, is free on a $100,000 property bond, which is secured through a mortgage on his personal property, said Birney B. Bervar, his attorney.
Chang was charged on three counts: smuggling, importing explosive materials without a license, and attempting to import explosives by falsifying statements. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison on the smuggling count, 10 years for importing explosives without a license and two years for making false statements.
Chang is president of Tiger Corp., an import, wholesale and retail business.
Federal officials said in court documents that the aerial fireworks were confiscated by agents from a shipping container that arrived from Shanghai in December 2009.
Government lawyers said Tiger Corp. legally imported 1.4G type, consumer-grade fireworks for nearly 15 years but did not have a federal license to import or handle commercial fireworks.
Court documents filed said Chang imported, without a license, about 5.75 kilograms of 1.3G type, commercial-grade aerial fireworks in December 2009. The merchandise included about 295 cartons containing a total of 1,980 units of 1.3G type fireworks devices with a domestic value of about $600,000, documents said.
The fireworks were packaged as 1.4G type fireworks valued at $42,290, the documents said.
It is illegal to import, sell, purchase or use 1.3G type commercial-grade aerial fireworks in Hawaii without a permit.
Chang was arrested in late April 2011, weeks after the April 8 Waikele explosion. Federal officials said the fireworks confiscated from Chang’s company were in the Waikele storage bunker that exploded, killing five employees of Donaldson Enterprises, which was contracted to dispose of seized fireworks.
Bervar said Chang wanted to go to trial last month, but that the government presented thousands of pages of new evidence late in the process that Bervar could not examine in time.
Bervar tried to have the newer information suppressed, arguing that a search warrant to seize records was only for one of Chang’s offices, not his computers. The motion was denied by Judge Helen Gillmor.
Chang, a leader in the Chinatown community who owns several businesses, continues to work as a businessman, although he has not sold fireworks since his arrest, Bervar said.
"He’s not guilty and we think that the evidence will prove that he’s not guilty," Bervar said.
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This update was written by Gordon Y.K. Pang. Suggest a topic for “Whatever Happened To…” by writing Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-210, Honolulu 96813; call 529-4747; or email cityeditors@staradvertiser.com.
