Rodrigues

“Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive!”

Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto VI, Stanza 17.

In his capacity as the State Director of the United Public Workers, AFSCME, Local 646, AFL-CIO (“UPW”) Petitioner Gary Wayne Rodrigues negotiated contracts with dental and health insurance providers, ostensibly on behalf of UPW members and their families. The providers were Hawaii Dental Services (“HDS”) and Pacific Group Medical Association (“PGMA”). At Rodrigues’s request, the providers included in these contracts what purported to be “consultant’s fees.” These fees were effectively to be paid by UPW members as part of their insurance premiums to the insurance providers, but the fees eventually ended up in the pockets of persons Rodrigues designated as the “consultants.” As it turned out, the purported consultants were (1) the stepfather of Rodrigues’s girlfriend and secretary, A1 Loughrin, and (2) shell companies of which Rodrigues’s daughter, Robin Haunani Rodrigues Sabatini (“Sabatini”), was the sole shareholder, only Director, and simultaneously the President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. During the investigation of these relationships…