The dinner was transactional. Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke sat with two men and a woman at a restaurant in January 2022 and left with two $5,000 checks for her campaign war chest.
One of the men is now well-known: Ty Cullen, the then-state representative who, unbeknownst to his colleagues, had been arrested for bribery and was gathering evidence for the FBI. The other, Tobi Solidum, was a lobbyist and businessman who had come with his stepdaughter, Kristen Pae.
Sometime that week, Cullen recorded a legislator investigators would describe as “influential” accepting $35,000 from someone, apparently in a paper bag, according to the Department of Justice.
Luke told Civil Beat last year she never took $35,000 from someone in a meeting with Cullen, and she maintains that. But she is now suggesting she could be the lawmaker referenced by federal officials — and that the dinner with Solidum may be the one the DOJ referenced in a court filing — even though the amounts of money differ.
While much focus in recent months has been on the mystery around who took that money, the person who delivered the money also has not been disclosed. A review of Solidum’s movements and his connections now suggests it could have been him.
From left: Tobi Solidum, Sylvia Luke, and Ty Cullen met for dinner in January 2022. Solidum and his stepdaughter each gave Luke $5,000 that she didn’t report until Civil Beat asked about it. (Photo of Solidum: Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation; Luke and Cullen: Civil Beat photos 2025/2023)
According to Luke, Solidum was her neighbor and Cullen’s friend.
Public records show Solidum did business with Milton Choy, the man convicted of bribing Cullen, and that the men gave political donations in tandem on more than a dozen occasions in recent years.
Luke did not report the donations from Solidum and Pae to the Hawaiʻi Campaign Spending Commission until last weekend, after Civil Beat asked about it — an omission she called an error by her campaign staff.
Once Cullen was charged with bribery, Luke took the unusual step in March 2022 of trying to distance herself from him by refunding the money.
“We returned the contribution because after Ty Cullen was charged with a crime, and because of his close relationship with Tobi, I felt uncomfortable,” Luke said.
Kristen Pae, stepdaughter of Tobi Solidum, gave $5,000 to Sylvia Luke that Luke later tried to return. ( Courtesy of The Maui News/2020)
According to Luke, the refund to Pae was never cashed, which Luke said her campaign also only noticed after Civil Beat asked about it. In lieu of that refund, Luke’s campaign issued a check for $5,000 to the Hawaiʻi Campaign Spending Commission. She said that expense will be logged in her next report.
Civil Beat tried to reach Solidum and Pae for comment. A phone number listed for Solidum was disconnected. Pae did not respond to phone messages. Pae’s donation listed an address in Pālolo, but when Civil Beat visited the site on Monday, a reporter was unable to find an apartment at that address.
Someone who has known the family for years told Civil Beat on Monday that Solidum and Pae had changed their phone numbers and even he didn’t know how to get in touch with them.
And multiple sources in recent days have told Civil Beat they believe Solidum left the country and is now living in the Philippines. He hasn’t given a political donation in Hawaiʻi since July 2022, campaign finance data shows.
Messages left with Cullen on Monday were not returned.
The $35,000 was given to the influential lawmaker on Jan. 20, 2022, according to the DOJ.
The checks Solidum and Pae gave to Luke were dated Jan. 20 and 21, 2022, according to copies broadcast by Hawaiʻi News Now, and the campaign says they were cashed on Jan. 21.
If and when the recording of the $35,000 interaction comes out, Luke told Civil Beat she is “not sure” if her voice will be on it.
A Note On Anonymous Sources
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Luke said she was never contacted by the U.S. Attorney’s office, which was previously investigating the case, but she declined to say whether she’s been contacted by the Hawaiʻi Attorney General, which is now handling it.
“Right now, the AG has a process, and we’ve got to respect the process,” Luke said, “so, you know, we shouldn’t be commenting on that.”
Luke said she hasn’t received any letters informing her she is the subject or target of an investigation. She declined to say whether she’s been subpoenaed.
“This situation is deeply concerning and accountability is essential – no one gets a free pass,” Gov. Josh Green said in a statement on Tuesday. “We are in an active investigation led by my Attorney General, and I want to see all of the facts released to the people of our state as expeditiously as possible. This needs to be resolved for the good of our public trust.”
A Lucrative Dinner Meeting Goes Unreported
In January 2022, Luke was running for lieutenant governor and actively fundraising to pay for expenses such as signs and advertisements.
Solidum was a constituent of then-state representative Luke and a neighbor who lived a few houses down from her. At the time, Luke was the chair of the powerful House Finance Committee. Cullen, the committee’s vice chair, was friends with Solidum and had introduced them, Luke said.
Solidum had suggested they get dinner, she recalled. It would’ve been the week of Jan. 21, the date the checks were cashed, but Luke said she couldn’t remember the exact date.
It wasn’t the first time she’d gone out to dinner with Solidum, according to Luke, though she said she couldn’t recall how many gatherings they’d had.
“We didn’t really have a close relationship,” she said.
Reps. Sylvia Luke and Ty Cullen worked closely on the House Finance Committee. (Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2022)
Solidum had donated to Luke’s campaigns at least five times previously, between 2015 and 2020, records show, with amounts ranging from $500 to $1,500 for her state representative races.
But on this night, Solidum handed over what records would suggest was his biggest check yet: $5,000, plus another $5,000 from his stepdaughter, who has worked as a paralegal.
No other money beyond the combined $10,000 was exchanged, according to Luke. And Luke said she doesn’t recall Solidum asking for any favors, implicitly or explicitly. She said she doesn’t even recall what line of work he was in.
“I don’t remember him mentioning any specific item,” she said.
Luke said she doesn’t remember the restaurant they went to nor who paid.
“He’s a constituent, so sometimes I would pay, or sometimes he would pay,” she said.
The checks were deposited on Jan. 21, according to Luke’s newly amended campaign disclosures. But they weren’t listed in the reports due that July, and Luke says she doesn’t know why.
“I’m not really sure what happened,” she said. “All I know is we got the checks — I got the checks — and I turned it over to the campaign staff, and I expect the campaign staff to follow the campaign spending laws, and I expect them to be reported.”
A Visit To New Jersey
A lobbyist with his own firm, Geopolicy Development Group, Solidum worked alongside Choy as a contractor for the National Kidney Foundation during the pandemic, according to nonprofit filings.
Like Choy, Solidum was a prolific campaign donor, giving more than $100,000 to candidates from 2010 to 2022, public records show.
The two seemed to have the same taste in political candidates too, in some cases donating seemingly in tandem: From 2015 to 2021, the men gave donations – often the same or similar amounts – to the same political candidates on or about the same dates on 19 occasions. The donations were sometimes aligned with a reported political fundraiser, but not always.
They were also both close to Cullen.
After being arrested in October 2021, Cullen became an FBI asset, actively surveilling those around him without their knowledge for the federal bribery investigation, according to a Department of Justice document exposed by Civil Beat.
That document revealed that Cullen participated in recorded phone calls and meetings contrived by the FBI to help their probe. And he shared information about bribes he and “other legislators” had taken in exchange for acting on behalf of special interests, the document said.
On Dec. 13, 2021, Cullen traveled to New Jersey to meet in person with a subject of the federal investigation.
At that time, Solidum was recovering from serious injuries he sustained falling down the stairs at a Brooklyn hotel on Nov. 17, 2021, according to a lawsuit he filed in New York in March 2022. The scene of his injury, 1 Brooklyn Bridge Hotel, has a direct view of the Statue of Liberty and the skyline of New Jersey, which is home to an international airport.
Tobi Solidum was bedridden for a month after a serious fall in New York in November 2021, according to a lawsuit he filed. That would place him in the New Jersey area when Ty Cullen was there to meet the subject of an FBI bribery investigation. (Hawaii News Now/2022)
Solidum had fractured his ankle, requiring multiple surgeries, the first of which was on Nov. 30, 2021, his lawsuit says. Following his injury, it says, Solidum was “confined to bed for approximately one month” — or until around Dec. 17, 2021.
No public information shows whether Solidum was the person Cullen flew to New Jersey to meet with, or whether these events were a coincidence.
During meetings with the “investigative subject” over the course of two days, Cullen collected information “of assistance to our investigation into public officials,” the Department of Justice said.
Solidum’s lawsuit says he was “incapacitated from employment for approximately two months.” That timeline would mean he was able to pick up his work again in mid-January 2022.
Cullen met with the bribery suspect again on Jan. 18, 2022. This time, the man, “believing the defendant could assist him with an official request,” gave him $3,000.
Two days later, on Jan. 20, Cullen met the man again, along with an “influential” state legislator, and “recorded a conversation that provided further helpful information to the investigative team.”
That’s when the unidentified individual gave the legislator $35,000, the document states, “purportedly to be used in an existing campaign.”
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