Brian Ahakuelo, head of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1260, used union funds for personal expenses over the last three years, according to a list of allegations assembled by the parent union.

In a notice sent to members, the IBEW’s regional office chronicled 12 alleged spending violations by Ahakuelo from 2014 to 2016, ranging from paying for family trips to Las Vegas, where Ahakuelo’s daughter and son-in-law reside, to covering the legal fees of his son, Brandon, the union’s chief of staff, in a criminal case involving unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle. Among the allegations was that Ahakuelo paid off a $24,000 bank loan for a truck initially owned by his wife, Marilyn, also an employee of the union.

On May 6 the international union placed Local 1260 in trusteeship and put Ahakuelo and 18 staff members on paid leave during an investigation into the allegations. The international union set May 23 for a hearing to decide how long the trusteeship will last.

The list of allegations that led to the trusteeship included employees of Local 1260 using company vehicles without authorization and Ahakuelo changing personnel policies to benefit himself and his family. One such policy allows employees to cash out 52 weeks of vacation time, though union bylaws prohibit employees from accumulating vacation.

Ahakuelo, 55, said Tuesday he would retire from his position, but Thursday announced he had changed his mind and would stay on as head of Local 1260.

Ahakuelo said he has secured legal counsel and is considering action against the IBEW’s Washington, D.C.-based international union, which he said has made false allegations against him.

The allegations are “totally false,” Ahakuelo said at an impromptu press conference Thursday morning at a Kakaako park. “The union basically is a pure organization, but it’s people who make it bad. It was a witch hunt on me because there was a concern that I was getting too popular.”

“What they’re doing is they’re discrediting me … by saying that they’re the good guys … and the bad guys are me and my family, and that’s totally not true,” Ahakuelo said.

Local 1260 represents more than 3,200 electrical workers, including Hawaiian Electric Co. and TV station employees. IBEW named Harold Dias, a former state AFL-CIO president, as trustee of Local 1260 during the investigation.

In recent years Ahakuelo was criticized by subordinates for his spending of union dues, including the hiring of five family members.

Ahakuelo earned $201,712 in 2015, while his wife, Marilyn, director of community services for Local 1260, was paid $105,119, according to the union’s most recent financial report filed with the U.S. Department of Labor. Their son Brandon received $143,274, while daughter-in-law Neiani, executive assistant, earned $77,656. Ahakuelo’s sister-in-law, Jennifer Estencion, senior executive assistant, had a salary of $101,855, the filing shows. A fifth family member, son-in-law Eric Falkner, was hired in March as a training coordinator/organizer for $125,000 a year, though he lives in Las Vegas, according to IBEW records.

“If you go through local unions across the country, you have family members who work there. … It’s part of what we do,” Ahakuelo said. “If you look at how many family members I have working at the union and you look at the total number of how many people who work on my staff, it’s less than 20 percent of the staff. I didn’t just go and hand-pick people. There were resumes put in, there was a vetting process and they were qualified to do the job. To go ahead and defame my family, to go ahead and defame the organization I built within the last five years … and then have people come in from the mainland and take it away from you, now that’s a tragedy.”

Damien Kim, business manager and financial secretary for IBEW Local 1186, representing nearly 3,900 local electricians, said union bylaws do not prohibit a business manager from hiring family members.

“But it’s up to each business manager on who they hire. Whoever you hire should be doing the job. There should be no issues if they’re doing their job,” Kim said. “In Hawaii there’s a lot of people that are related somehow. (Hiring) immediate family is a little bit tougher (to explain), but it’s not like it’s never been done in Hawaii.”

IBEW said the investigation into Local 1260 is a significant development.

“Placing a local under trusteeship is a rare occurrence, and the IBEW does not take it lightly,” said IBEW spokesman Mark Brueggenjohann. “The (May 23) hearing will determine whether the trusteeship imposed on May 6 will continue. Our primary concern is to protect the members of Local 1260 and make sure that the dues that they pay are used properly by the local.”

Ahakuelo said he changed his mind about retiring because he wants to fight the allegations.

“I am not retiring from the IBEW. I’m going to see this through because I owe it to my membership. I owe it to my family. I owe it to the state of Hawaii that the truth comes out,” he said. “We cannot have people who are coming in from the mainland … and going ahead making these false allegations and putting someone on trial without due process. Due process to them is to take you out of the office, fool around with your records and then make false allegations of what you have done, which has been nothing wrong.”

Ahakuelo added he is considering running for vice president of the ninth district of the parent union. The current regional vice president is John O’Rourke, who is based in San Francisco and signed the list of allegations against Ahakuelo.

Ahakuelo said the reason the international union is bringing false allegations against him is because it was “jealous” of him and “fearful” that he would run for vice president. He said O’Rourke called for the “witch hunt.”

O’Rourke was not available for comment. The ninth district represents 131,000 workers in California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii and the northern portion of Idaho, as well as on Guam and Saipan.

Several Local 1260 members, who asked not to be identified out of fear of losing union support, said many workers are aware of the alleged misappropriations. It’s a “touchy situation” because nobody wants to speak out against the union and risk losing protection, especially during a precarious time with the proposed sale of Hawaiian Electric Industries to Florida-based NextEra Energy Inc., the union members said.

“We let them do whatever they going to do, just for let us keep our jobs,” one union member said. “We know that they’re mismanaging funds, but what else we going do? (Without the union) we got nothing.”

Notice of Hearing to IBEW Members by Honolulu Star-Advertiser