Former ILWU Officer Sentenced to 24 Months in Prison for Embezzlement from Union Over 4.5-Year Period

News Release from U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Hawaii, Wednesday, May 3, 2023

HONOLULU – Charles Kimo Brown, 64, of Mililani, was sentenced today in federal court by United States District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi to 24 months of imprisonment, a fine of $96,000, a forfeiture money judgment of $1,425.01, and three years of supervised release for embezzling $96,000 while he was the Secretary-Treasurer of the Hawaii Longshore Division of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142.

According to information presented to the court, as the former Secretary-Treasurer of the Hawaii Longshore Division, Brown was paid according to vouchers that he submitted to the accounting department of Local 142. The hours Brown was supposed to list on the vouchers were based upon the “lost time” that he could have worked for his employer, McCabe, Hamilton & Renny Co., Ltd., where he worked as a machine operator. This was an “honor system” which depended upon the honesty of the defendant and other union officers to accurately report the number of hours they could have worked for their employers instead of working for the union.

While Brown was charged with submitting two false wage vouchers that resulted in him embezzling $1,425.01, the prosecution argued during the trial, and in sentencing, that he should be held accountable for all of the false vouchers that he submitted while acting as Secretary-Treasurer of the union, including 384 false entries, with a total embezzlement of $96,000 during a span of 4.5 years. Judge Kobayashi agreed and sentenced him to a term of imprisonment of 24 months and a fine of $96,000.

In sentencing Brown, Judge Kobayashi stated that she was “troubled” by the facts that the defendant had breached the trust his fellow union members had given him by stealing $96,000 from them during a long, 4.5-year period. While she recognized that there were a number of mitigating factors, and she took them into account, she found that a sentence of 24 months was necessary to reflect the seriousness of the defendant’s crimes and to deter others from committing similar ones.

The case resulted from an investigation by the Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall Silverberg and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Hudspeth handled the prosecution.

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