HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Saying she lacks remorse and does not accept responsibility for her actions, a federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a Kahala woman to two years in prison for her role in a Trump-era influence peddling scheme.
U.S. District Judge Leslie Kobayashi also fined Nikki Lum Davis $250,000 and ordered her to serve three years of supervised release. Davis, a Punahou graduate, also agreed to pay $3 million in restitution to the government.
Political observers said the sentence was appropriate.
“She was used to working in these political circles and tried to use her influence to make money for herself and get government decisions favorable to her clients,” said investigative reporter and blogger Ian Lind.
“We are talking about large-scale international activities that violate a number of different laws. “
Court documents show that Davis and her former partner — former Republican National Committee staffer Elliot Broidy — tried to arrange meetings between officials in President Donald Trump’s administration and supporters of former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. Razak was arrested in 2018 and later sentenced to 12 years in prison for stealing $4.5 billion in the country’s 1MDB scandal.
The meetings were aimed at quashing Razak’s investigation into US government kleptocracy.
“It was a very serious crime involving a billionaire on the loose trying to prevent the government from tracking his stolen money and prosecuting it in US courts,” Lind said.
Davis also admitted to working on behalf of the People’s Republic of China in its campaign to extradite billionaire dissident Guo Wengui.
Davis and her attorneys declined to comment as they left federal court Wednesday.
But in her pleas to the court, she said her cooperation with the federal government led to influence peddling convictions against her former partner Broidy.
Brody was later pardoned by Trump.
Davis also claimed to have helped free American hostages held in China.
“I thought I could really do something great for the country by bringing home three American hostages, but instead I was painted as an agent of China,” she wrote.
“I have always considered myself a true American patriot.
John Keller of the US Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Division told the court on Wednesday that Davis received about $10 million from Razak supporters and the Chinese government.
“This scheme has always been about money. It is not about patriotism,” he said.
As part of her $3 million restitution deal with the federal government, Davis agreed to pay $10,000 a month to the government.
In her court documents, she said she was in the process of selling her Kahala home for $7.5 million and that her family’s expenses were about $59,000 a month.
Davis is scheduled to surrender to federal authorities on April 14 at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California.
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