The state Campaign Spending Commission is investigating whether a subcontractor responsible for COVID-19 testing at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport reimbursed two employees for $10,000 in campaign contributions made to former Mayor Kirk Caldwell.

After entering the 2022 gubernatorial race in March, Caldwell exited the race in early May.

In 2020 the National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii Consortium received a $19.5 million emergency contract from the city, during Caldwell’s administration, to “provide fast, convenient, self-administered COVID-19 testing” at the airport, according to the foundation’s Hawaii website. The nonprofit later subcontracted part of the work to Capture Diagnostics LLC.

Capture Diagnostics provided a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) midturbinate test and processed results within six hours. According to the Business Registration Division of the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Capture Diagnostics is a foreign limited-liability company registered on Jan. 6, 2021.

The Campaign Spending Commission has subpoenaed bank records of Wesley H. Yonamine, a senior project manager with Capture Diagnostics, and Jordan W.A.K. Kurokawa, who works as a compliance administrator for the company, according to attorneys and sources with knowledge of the investigation.

Yonamine gave the Caldwell campaign $4,000 on Nov. 9, 2021, and Kurokawa donated $6,000 on the same date, according to state campaign spending records.

Capture Diagnostics LLC CEO John T. D’Orazio of Naples, Fla., who is not the subject of a CSC subpoena, also gave $4,000 to Caldwell’s campaign on Nov. 9, according to the records. A Capture Diagnostics spokesperson issued a statement maintaining that the company does not reimburse “any employee for any personal campaign contributions.”

Gary Kam, general counsel for the Campaign Spending Commission, declined comment.

Yonamine and Kurokawa were notified of the subpoenas to the commission when they were copied on the messages letting their banks know about the records request. Yonamine’s records were subpoenaed in April, and an August inquiry to the commission by his attorney revealed that the investigation is open and ongoing.

Kurokawa is the son of former Caldwell chief of staff Gary Kurokawa. Gary Kurokawa did not reply to a Honolulu Star-Advertiser request for comment.

Gary Kurokawa told Hawaii News Now that his son was hired by Capture Diagnostics after the city awarded the airport testing contract and that Jordan Kurokawa was not reimbursed for his $6,000 donation to Caldwell’s campaign.

Further, Jordan Kurokawa worked on Capture Diagnostic’s Neal S. Blaisdell Center COVID-19 testing operation — not at the airport — and his contribution to the Caldwell campaign came from a joint account that he and his son share for their real estate appraisal business, Gary Kurokawa said.

On Thursday the Honolulu Ethics Commission posted the first of two tweets highlighting a Hawaii News Now report, which aired Aug. 8, about the investigation, tagging the Campaign Spending Commission’s twitter account that read, in part, “The @hicsc subpoenaed bank records of two Capture Diagnostics employees, which was awarded a $19.5M contract for the city’s testing program at the airport.”

The Ethics Commission posted a second tweet that read, “@hicsc is looking at whether the company reimbursed employees who gave a total of $10,000 to the Caldwell campaign in Nov 2021. Campaign finance experts said the allegations are serious. It’s egregious to use a public health crisis to get campaign contributions.”

Laurie A. Wong-Nowinski, assistant executive director and legal counsel for the Ethics Commission, declined comment when asked whether the committee had opened an ethics investigation in connection with the allegations being investigated by the state Campaign Spending Commission.