FBI arrests 2 with HPD ties in Kealoha probe

The FBI has arrested a Honolulu Police Department officer and a retired HPD major who have connections to a federal probe surrounding retired Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha, his wife, Deputy Prosecutor Katherine Kealoha, and other officers.

FBI Special Agent Arnold Laanui said Minh-Hung “Bobby” Nguyen and Gordon Shiraishi were arrested Sunday. Nguyen is an officer and Shiraishi is a retired major. Laanui could not provide further details because the case is under court seal.

Their lawyers confirmed the men were arrested Sunday morning.

Nguyen’s lawyer, Randall Hironaka, said the FBI arrested his client around 9:30 a.m. He said the only information the FBI provided him is that there is a warrant for Nguyen’s arrest.

“We don’t know whether or not there is an indictment or what charges he is facing,” Hironaka said.

Lars Isaacson, Shiraishi’s lawyer, said he doesn’t know why the FBI arrested his client around 10:15 a.m. Sunday in front of his family and the entire neighborhood.

“We had no warning that this was going to occur,” Isaacson said.

He said he visited Shiraishi at the Federal Detention Center and that Shiraishi is in good spirits.

Nguyen and Shiraishi are expected to appear in U.S. District Court today, as federal court rules require a defendant to be brought before a magistrate judge “without unnecessary delay.”

That’s when Hironaka and Isaacson said they expect to learn more about their clients’ arrests.

The men are connected to an incident in June 2013 when the Kealohas reported their mailbox had been stolen.

Prosecutors say the report was false, and the subsequent police investigation was a conspiracy to frame and discredit Gerard Puana, Katherine Kealoha’s uncle, according to court documents.

Puana’s former attorney, First Assistant Federal Public Defender Alexander Silvert, has said Kealoha wanted to discredit Puana in a civil lawsuit in which Puana and his mother claimed Kealoha had stolen $150,000 from them in connection with a reverse mortgage that she oversaw.

The theft of the mailbox was investigated by officers in HPD’s Criminal Intelligence Unit. Shiraishi was a supervisor in CIU, and Nguyen also was assigned to the unit at the time.

Also at the time, Nguyen lived in the back of the Kea­lohas’ house in Kahala and was married to Katherine Kealoha’s niece, court documents said.

The Kealohas and Nguyen all identified Puana as the suspect in a video of the mailbox theft, a court document said.

Another retired HPD officer, Niall Silva, has already pleaded guilty in connection with the case. Silva was a technician in CIU dealing with surveillance and video footage.

He pleaded guilty Dec. 16 in federal court to a conspiracy involving the obstruction of justice and making false statements. He is awaiting sentencing in February.

In his guilty plea, Silva said he submitted false evidence.

Michael Wheat, a San Diego-based assistant U.S. attorney, said in court during Silva’s change of plea that the government would have proved if the case went forward that Silva agreed to say he was the one who went to the Kealohas’ home about 9 a.m. June 22, 2013, to check out the surveillance system that captured video of the mailbox theft and retrieve the hard drive.

Instead, Silva went to the police station and retrieved the hard drive from another officer, described as co-conspirator No. 2, and took excerpts from the hard drive, according to his indictment.

Afterward, Silva lied to postal authorities investigating the case and on the witness stand during Puana’s stolen-mailbox trial, claiming that he retrieved the hard drive from the Kealohas’ home, the prosecutor said.

Silva acknowledged the government’s claims were correct.

The indictment against Silva mentioned four unidentified co-conspirators. The two main co-conspirators appear to be Katherine Kea­loha and Nguyen, according to testimony Silva gave at Puana’s trial.

According to his indictment, Silva planned to say he met with co-conspirator No. 2 at the Kealohas’ home to retrieve the hard drive. In his court testimony, Silva said he met with Nguyen at the home to remove the hard drive.

The federal mailbox case ended in a mistrial in 2014 after Louis Kealoha presented unsolicited information about Puana during his testimony. After the mistrial, Silvert presented evidence of what he said was police corruption, and prosecutors dismissed the case against Puana, then turned it over to the FBI.

A federal grand jury has been looking into the case involving the Kealohas for nearly two years. The grand jury’s term expires Thursday.

Kealoha placed himself on paid administrative leave in December after receiving a letter from federal investigators identifying him as a target of a criminal investigation.

In January, Kealoha reached an agreement with the Honolulu Police Commission to retire March 1 and receive $250,000 in severance.

Star-Advertiser reporter Gordon Pang contributed to this report.