Protection contractor’s Senate marketing campaign donations investigated – KIRO 7 Information Seattle

HONOLULU – (AP) – U.S. authorities are investigating allegations that a Hawaii-based defense contractor illegally donated $ 150,000 to the re-election fund of a Maine Senator who signed up for an $ 8 million Navy contract with the company has pronounced.

A U.S. judge approved an FBI arrest warrant motion to search a hard drive containing images of an iPhone owned by Martin Kao, the former CEO of Navatek, now known as the Martin Defense Group, based in Hawaii and with offices in Maine, Washington, DC and other states.

The arrest warrant was also for an iPhone owned by the company’s former CFO. The news from the probe was first reported from the Axios website.

The phones were seized during a separate investigation that led to a lawsuit accusing Kao of defrauding more than $ 12.8 million in banks to help businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic are. He has pleaded not guilty in this case. His defense attorney did not immediately return a phone message on Wednesday asking for comment on the new allegations.

Navatek, banned from contributing to political campaigns as a federal entrepreneur, started another company that, according to an affidavit submitted by the FBI, was used to hide the donation to a political action committee that was calling for the re-election of Republican Senator Susan Susan Collins supported with the warrant application.

In December 2019, Navatek’s Hawaii-based accountant wrote a check for $ 150,000 from the company’s corporate account to the Society of Young Women Scientists and Engineers LLC, which had opened a month earlier with Kao’s wife as registrar, the affidavit said Explanation. The newly formed organization then donated $ 150,000 to the Super PAC.

“The Collins for Senator campaign had absolutely no knowledge of anything that was alleged in the warrant,” said Annie Clark, Collins spokeswoman.

Between June and September 2019, Kao, his relatives, and relatives of other former company officials gave money to Collins’ campaign, which Kao then returned with Navatek money, the affidavit said.

In August 2019, Collins announced that Navatek had won a $ 8 million contract from the Department of Defense for advanced hull planning research. In a press release on the Senator’s website, she was quoted as “a senior member of the Defense Subcommittee.” I made a strong support for the funding that made this research possible and I am so proud of the work that Navatek and other Maine industries do to assist our navy and the defense of our nation. “

The company designs and analyzes ship hull shapes, ocean structures, underwater lifting bodies and coupled hydrodynamic systems according to the court document.

Kao stepped down as CEO in November, said Jennifer Oliver, a spokeswoman for the Martin Defense Group. “The company is fully cooperating with the government investigation,” she said in a statement.

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Associate press writer David Sharp of Portland, Maine contributed to this report.