A strange legal case that broke on Hawaiʻi’s shores this week had its genesis in a not-too-distant era when hunger was skyrocketing and public officials were frantically spending money to meet that need.
Dexter Kishida, a former Honolulu government employee, is charged with defrauding a respected nonprofit, the Hawaiʻi Foodbank, during the pandemic by falsely telling it that nearly $1 million in Covid-19 relief funding was available to buy and distribute food from local farmers.
The nonprofit, which had already received similar funding through the office where Kishida worked, spent its own money to do that – a routine practice with nonprofits that provide services under government contract. But when the food bank later invoiced the city of Honolulu, it eventually found that the money Kishida promised would be there to pay for the food wasn’t.
Kishida is also accused of forging documents to make it appear the food bank would get paid. Based on court documents and statements from authorities so far, he appears not to have personally benefited financially, even as the nonprofit was left holding the bag for $800,000…