Former state Sen. Cal Kawamoto, who was fined more than $21,000 last year for campaign finance abuses, now faces a criminal investigation.

In a 4-0 vote yesterday, the Campaign Spending Commission referred its two-year investigation of Kawamoto to the attorney general's office for a criminal probe. The commission concluded that Kawamoto — among other abuses — improperly transferred $130,000 of his campaign funds to a Waipahu charity that he heads.

"This case involves a gross misuse of campaign funds," said Bob Watada, the commission's executive director. "He planned to drain his entire campaign's assets."

Kawamoto, who lost his bid for re-election in November after 10 years in office, defended his actions before the commission and accused the commission staff of destroying his political career.

"This was the start of my fall from grace," Kawamoto said.

"Do we keep the Gestapo tactics that we have experienced for the last few years?" he asked the commissioners.

Watada, in a nine-page complaint, said Kawamoto spent tens of thousands of campaign dollars on himself. Kawamoto said all his spending was related to his campaign.

"Being an elected official, you are campaigning every day," Kawamoto said, "if it's going to the movies, dining out, going to church or going to community meetings."

Kawamoto said as a politician he was always campaigning.

"A senator or elected official cannot have a bad day. If you are a sitting senator and have a bad day and do not smile to somebody who supposedly knows you through the media or whatever, you'll hear from your advisers that Miss So-and-So said you were not friendly."

The criminal referral comes after the commission fined Kawamoto more than $21,000 last year for questionable expenditures that he billed his campaign between 1995 and 2003.

The criminal referral requires the attorney general to investigate Watada's complaint. Attorney General Mark Bennett did not return a call seeking comment.

CHARITY INVESTIGATION

Meanwhile, the tax division of the attorney general's office has begun conducting a separate, civil investigation into Kawamoto's Waipahu charity.

Both investigations will look into the finances of the Waipahu Community Adult Day Health Care and Youth Day Care Center. The nonprofit operates a $3 million, 9,000-square foot center constructed largely with city money on state land leased for $1 a year. The nonprofit does not operate any programs at the site, but leases space to two separate nonprofit groups. Kawamoto is president of the nonprofit.

Kawamoto, a prolific campaign fundraiser, was chairman of the Senate transportation committee before losing his seat to retired school vice principal Clarence Nishihara. Nishihara and others criticized Kawamoto for opposing efforts to reform Hawai'i's campaign finance laws just as his campaign had come under investigation.

The commission's complaint alleged Kawamoto improperly transferred $130,000 in leftover campaign funds to the Waipahu Center after he lost his election.

The commission said that the Waipahu Center's board of directors hired a company headed by Kawamoto, CKK Consultants, for $1,000 a month to manage and promote the center on the same day that the board agreed to accept the $130,000 from Kawamoto's campaign.

WHAT THE LAW SAYS

State law requires politicians to return all surplus campaign funds to original donors. If the donors can't be located, the money can be given to a nonprofit organization so long as it is not connected to the politician.

Kawamoto said that his reading of the law allows him to donate the money to any nonprofit organization regardless of its affiliations. He added that the Waipahu Center is an independent entity that's governed by an outside board of directors.

The commission also charged that Kawamoto's campaign improperly transferred a $20,000 Subaru Baja SUV and two Segway human transporters to the center last year.

The Subaru was purchased with Kawamoto's campaign funds in 2003, and the commission criticized Kawamoto's use of campaign money to buy the car, saying it was largely used for Kawamoto's personal trips.

A copy of the vehicle's certificate of registration shows that the car was transferred to both Kawamoto and the center.

Kawamoto said he kept his name on the registration because officials at the city's motor vehicle branch advised him that that's the only way he could keep his veteran's license plate.

He defended his use of campaign funds to purchase the car, saying he needed the vehicle to carry his Segways "from house to house" when campaigning.

Reach Rick Daysog at rdaysog@honoluluadvertiser.com.