Pearl City man charged with taking millions in bribes as U.S. contracting officer

A 58-year-old Pearl City man is in custody at the Federal Detention Center on charges that he accepted and hid more than $2.8 million in bribes that he solicited to steer more than $400 million worth of engineering and construction work to a particular South Korean-based multinational company when he worked as a contracting officer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

A federal grand jury returned an indictment Thursday charging Duane Nishiie and South Korean national Seung-Ju Lee, 50, with conspiracy, bribery, wire fraud, money laundering and lying in connection with the awarding of two contracts that are part of a massive, ongoing U.S. Army relocation project in South Korea.

Nishiie pleaded not guilty Friday. Lee has yet to answer to the charges.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenneth J. Mansfield ordered Nishiie released pending trial on $50,000 unsecured signature bond Tuesday.

According to the indictment, Nishiie and Lee steered a December 2008 infrastructure and engineering contract worth more than $400 million to a particular company and a March 2010 construction contract worth more than $6 million to the same company in exchange for bribes. Lee was an officer in the procurement arm of the Korean Ministry of Defense, which is working with the U.S. government on the Army relocation project.

The indictment does not name the company, and no one connected with it is charged with any crimes.

In order to successfully steer the contracts to the company, Nishiie and Lee allegedly enlisted the help of other workers in the Corps of Engineers’ Far East Division and Korean government.

The indictment says Nishiie hid the bribe money he received by purchasing real estate and putting it in bank accounts in the names of others, including two girlfriends.

Nishiie quit his job with the Army Corps of Engineers in 2012 and started lobbying Defense Department officials for construction projects on behalf of the company that had previously paid him bribes, the indictment says.