Former top city building plans examiner admits to taking bribes to expedite permits

A former building plans examiner at the city Department of Planning and Permitting entered a plea of guilty Monday to accepting nearly $100,000 in bribes to pre-screen plans and expedite approval of permits for contractors and an architect.

Wayne Inouye, 65, retired from city service in 2017 and was indicted March 17, 2021, by federal prosecutors who charged him with six counts of honest services wire fraud and one count of lying to federal investigators. Inouye, who created a company to help accept bribes, lied to an FBI agent and an assistant U.S. attorney on July 11, 2019, that the $100,000 was a loan from “Architect 1,” according to federal court documents.

Inouye, who did not reach a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, faces up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of probation for each count of honest services wire fraud. He faces five years in federal prison for lying to investigators.

“Architect 1” is William Wong, who entered a plea of guilty on April 7, 2021, to a single count of honest serv­ices wire fraud for paying more than $89,000 in bribes and will be sentenced Dec. 1.

“Mr. Inouye wanted to accept responsibility for his actions in this case. He admitted today to accepting compensation to pre-screen plans being submitted by certain companies to ensure code compliance prior to submittal,” said Inouye’s attorney, Thomas Otake, in a statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “We will ask the Court at sentencing to not only consider his conduct in this case, but to also consider the many positive things Mr. Inouye has done in his life.”

Inouye will be sentenced March 9 at 1:30 p.m. before U.S. District Judge Leslie Kobayashi.

Inouye, Wong and four others were indicted for their roles in the pay-to- permit scheme.

On June 27, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson sentenced former city building plans examiner Jennie Javonillo, 72, to 2-1/2 years in prison and two years of federal probation for soliciting and accepting bribes to expedite permit applications.

Watson also ordered Javonillo to pay a $5,000 fine and a special assessment of $100. The judge previously ordered her to forfeit $58,000 to the government as part of a plea deal. She pleaded guilty Jan. 25 to one count of honest services wire fraud in exchange for the government dropping two identical charges.

Jason Dadez, a former DPP building inspector, pleaded guilty Feb. 14 to a charge that involved accepting a $1,000 check from owners of a Waipahu restaurant and corresponding with an architect about an Ala Wai Boulevard residence. On July 6 he was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.

Kanani Padeken, a former DPP building plans examiner who pleaded guilty in April 2021 to charges of wire fraud and admitted taking at least $28,000 in bribes, will be sentenced Dec. 1.

Jocelyn Godoy was working in the DPP’s data access and imaging branch when she allegedly solicited and took bribes from an architect and third-party reviewer, according to court records. She is scheduled to go to trial Jan. 23.

Inouye allegedly helped Wong and two other Honolulu businesses between February 2012 and September 2017. The bribes included $89,205.81 from Wong, $5,250 from a signage contractors and $9,685 from a building contractor.

Inouye used a sole proprietorship named SKI and Associates, a personal cellphone and in-person meetings at places other than DPP to carry out the scheme, and failed to inform DPP of the bribes received by him in exchange for expediting approval of projects, according to federal court documents.