The 64-year-old former executive officer of the Hawaii Longshore Division should spend the next 30 months in federal prison and pay a $150,000 fine after he was found guilty of falsifying records and embezzlement that cost his union $95,000, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Charles Kimo Brown was found guilty Nov. 1 in a nonjury trial of two counts of falsification of financial records of a labor union and two counts of embezzlement of labor union funds. At his sentencing, scheduled for today, he will be asking U.S. District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi to sentence him to probation and fine him $10,000.
Kobayashi’s court found and concluded that in 2014 on April 11 and 18, Brown turned in wage vouchers to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 241, Hawaii Longshore Workers Division, that “contained false entries” made willfully by Brown and that he “knowingly embezzled or converted the Longshore Division’s funds” of its money, according to federal court records.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall H. Silverberg, in a sentencing memorandum filed April 3, noted that the government did not ask for more federal prison time, even though Brown “committed at least six different acts of perjury when testifying — both on direct examination and during his cross-examination.”
According to the government, the testimony included falsehoods about Brown’s employer’s collective bargaining agreement, lost time he was entitled to and overtime hours.
“This is not a case where a defendant committed a crime, pleaded guilty, or merely put the government to its burden of proof at trial. Rather, this is a case where the defendant repeatedly lied during his trial testimony. Pattern of lying means a downward variance simply is not warranted,” wrote Silverberg. “Indeed, one could practice in this court for more than 40 years and not witness a defendant who kept lying so extensively after being confronted with contrary evidence.”
From December 2009 through April 2014, Brown was an executive officer of the Hawaii Longshore Division, an autonomous division of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142. In 2014, Brown was employed at McCabe Renny &Hamilton Co., Ltd. as a machine operator.
As the Secretary-Treasurer of the Longshore Division, Brown was responsible for the union’s financial matters, among other duties, and his pay came directly from Longshore Division funds in lieu of wages that he would have received from his regular employer, according to the justice department.
The payments in the complaint were known as “lost time wages” and Brown, who worked the waterfront for 33 years as a crane operator and a machine operator, “consistently inflated his lost time hours on the weekly vouchers that he signed and submitted for payment from the Longshore Division.”
The prosecution relied on the help of “two very competent case agents, who knew the vouchers, the McCabe logbook, and the McCabe pay slips in unusual detail” that allowed them to confront Brown as he lied by changing his trial testimony to try and adapt to “new conflicting evidence.”
Brown owns three residences, has a net worth of roughly $900,000, and a monthly cash flow of about $4,000 and can afford the $150,000 fine, an increase from the $100,000 recommended by the probation office, Silverberg wrote.
“A message needs to be sent not only to the defendant but also to other union leaders that if you steal from your union members, you don’t simply face a term of imprisonment and the return of the money you stole,” wrote Silverberg. “Rather, the message should be that such a thief would not only face a term of imprisonment but also would have to pay a 50 percent penalty for all of the money that he stole from his fellow union members.”
Brown’s attorney, William A. Harrison, wrote in his sentencing memo filed April 7 that his client should be sentenced to probation, home confinement and fined $10,000.
“Charles Kimo Brown is a 64 year old, Native Hawaiian man who stands before this honorable court for sentencing on the first criminal
matter in his otherwise exemplary life. His background and history would belie any thought of his presence now before the court. Except for the current troubles, his life pursuits have been nothing but commendable,” wrote Harrison.
A military veteran and former member of the U.S. men’s National Volleyball Team, Harrison said Brown’s “commitment to family, friends and work, as well as social and community responsibility has been outstanding.”
Harrison pointed to the character letters from Brown’s family and friends that describe a caring man willing to help anyone in need. Harrison also noted that Brown’s age could make him “easy prey” for other inmates. In addition, he said, the “over representation of ethnic Hawaiians in prison,” highlighted by a 2010 Office of Hawaiian Affairs study, should be considered by Kobayashi as she determines his sentence.
Brown, in a letter to Kobayashi, wrote that the case has “had an enormous impact on me.”
“It affects every aspect of my life. It is my first thought when I wake up every morning and keeps me awake long after I have turned off the lights each night. The impact it has had upon my wife, children, family, friends, and co-workers grieves me. They have all suffered with me and because of me,” wrote Brown. “However, perhaps most unsettling for me is that I have cast a spotlight on the union and its membership. The members and leaders are dedicated and diligent workers and deserve to be seen in the best possible image — not with any negative association. My remorse for all those whom I have affected feels almost tangible at times, a shadow that follows my every move.”
The ILWU has 14,000 to 15,000 workers, and the Longshore Division has about 1,110 workers. The ILWU provides Longshore Division Workers with office functions and access to all of it facilities, and the Longshore Division contributes 50% of the dues it receives to the ILWU.
