Justice Department says well-known Hawaiian defense contractor embezzled funds

Federal prosecutors say Christopher Dawson, a prominent defense contractor who died in 2024, embezzled millions of dollars from his companies to live a lavish lifestyle at the expense of Native Hawaiians.

The accusations come from newly unsealed court filings in which the U.S. Justice Department details how it believes Dawson and other executives pulled off the crime, using shell companies and direct company transfers to steal money from Dawson’s federal contracting businesses to line their own pockets and purchase expensive homes.

The DOJ has filed civil forfeiture proceedings to seize assets, which center on Dawson’s participation in a U.S. Small Business Administration program, known as 8(a), which gave him and his companies special access to massive no-bid government contracts in exchange for the promise that the profits be used to uplift and support Native Hawaiians.

The forfeiture focuses on four of Dawson’s properties, including a $3.5 million beachfront home on Oahu’s North Shore, a luxury condominium in Ala Moana and a six-bedroom estate in Wellington, Florida, in an attempt to recoup some of the money.

The civil action also seeks to seize $592,960 that Dawson used as a deposit on a $3.4 million condominium he planned to purchase in Ala Moana.

Dawson died by suicide last December, 18 months after federal agents raided his offices, leading his own company to ask him to step down. At the time, his family told police he was struggling financially as a result of the fallout from the investigation and descending deeper in debt.

Dawson, a Native Hawaiian, founded the Hawaiian Native Corp. in 2004 as a nonprofit, which in turn owned numerous for-profit companies operating under the name DAWSON. These companies relied heavily on the SBA’s 8(a) privileges to win hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts for a wide range of work from cybersecurity and snow removal to clearing out unexploded ordnance.

Under SBA rules, revenues from Dawson’s for-profit companies were supposed to flow back to the Hawaiian Native Corp. to then be used to fund programs that support Native Hawaiian culture, education and economic development.

Instead, DOJ officials say Dawson and others abused the 8(a) program to “perpetuate a fraud scheme and embezzlement” that victimized both the Hawaiian Native Corp. and the Native Hawaiians the nonprofit was intended to serve.

The DOJ investigation, which has relied on internal company records, bank statements and interviews with former employees, found that Dawson worked with his chief financial officer, Bryan Hara, to siphon money out of the Hawaiian Native Corp. and its companies to pay for Dawson’s personal expenses.

Hawaiian Native Corp. and DAWSON executives also used shell companies and “hollow invoices” to sidestep SBA rules that limited how much compensation they could receive. The shell companies, according to prosecutors, were controlled by Dawson, Hara and Billy Cress, a former DAWSON president and chief operating officer.

Hara’s attorney Tommy Otake did not respond to a request for comment. Otake has represented numerous high-profile defendants, including convicted organized crime boss Mike Miske. Attempts to reach Cress also were unsuccessful.

Company Says It’s Working With The Feds

The four properties being targeted by the DOJ for forfeiture were purchased between 2017 and 2021 and had a combined price tag of more than $8.2 million, according to county tax records. In the filing unsealed last week, prosecutors said each of the properties was purchased “wholly or in part” using Hawaiian Native Corp. and DAWSON company money.

In Florida, Dawson purchased a $1.4 million home using funds almost exclusively taken from one of his 8(a) companies, the court records state. Soon after, Dawson obtained a cash-out refinance against the property that allowed him to transfer $951,620.14 into a personal bank account.

In a joint statement, Hawaiian Native Corp. President Allen Hoe and DAWSON CEO Dave Johnson told Civil Beat they would be working with the DOJ on the eventual sale of the properties up for forfeiture “so that the proceeds can be properly directed.”

The true scope of Dawson’s alleged fraud is hard to measure based on the information contained in the newly unsealed records. But prosecutors said that between 2015 and 2021 the total amount of money diverted into Dawson Group, which they described as one of Dawson’s shell companies, was $17 million. That amount is nearly double what the DOJ said was sent to the Hawaiian Native Corp. for the benefit of the Native Hawaiians.

Dawson Traveled The World To Play Polo

In addition to the properties, prosecutors said the diverted funds were used to cover Dawson’s personal expenses on his business credit cards and other “luxury items,” including travel, horses and polo.

Dawson was a renowned figure in the international polo community. Before he died, he boasted of traveling the world to play with some of the world’s top players and founded his own brand, Hawaii Polo Life, that sponsored the women’s team that won the U.S. championship in 2019, 2020 and 2022.

He’d also purchased a large barn in Argentina to breed and clone horses alongside Adolfo Cambiaso who is considered among the greatest to ever play the sport.

Dawson became the target of a criminal investigation in 2023 when federal agents executed a search warrant at the Hawaiian Native Corp. headquarters in downtown Honolulu, seizing employee cellphones and computers. At the time, Hawaiian Native Corp. and DAWSON company officials said the investigation was focused on “alleged tax irregularities.” The investigation was led by the IRS and Defense Criminal Investigative Service, which is an arm of the Defense Department Office of Inspector General.

Dawson was ultimately removed from the Hawaiian Native Corp. board of directors along with family members who served alongside him, including his sister, Donne Dawson, the Hawaii State Film Commissioner. They were replaced by Hoe, a Native Hawaiian lawyer and veterans advocate who had served as an advisor to the nonprofit and as a member of its board of directors, and Andy Winer, the Hawaiian Native Corp.’s lobbyist and former chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz.

As the investigation played out, the DAWSON companies continued to win lucrative government contracts, including a maintenance and repair contract at the Navy’s Red Hill fuel storage facility on Oahu and another to help clean up debris from the Lahaina burn site on Maui.

Donne Dawson did not respond to a Civil Beat request for comment.

The DOJ is continuing its criminal investigation, according to court records, although prosecutors have declined to comment.

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This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.