Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 47 minutes ago
Read the story: civilbeat.org/2025/12/hawaii-sba-native-indigenous-nonprofit-oversight
Private jets, Porsches, luxury homes and a beachfront polo farm. These are among the ways a Hawaiʻi federal contractor allegedly enriched himself with funds intended to uplift Native Hawaiians in a case prosecutors would later describe as a “fraud scheme and embezzlement.”
Christopher Dawson, who died by suicide last year, and his companies had won hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts over the years — and the feds didn’t make him compete with any other bidders with the understanding that proceeds would help Native Hawaiians by supporting such things as promoting the culture, building homes and supporting orphaned children.
Yet even after allegations of wrongdoing surfaced, Dawson’s companies received more than $500 million in payments.
Read the story: civilbeat.org/2025/12/hawaii-sba-native-indigenous-nonprofit-oversight
Private jets, Porsches, luxury homes and a beachfront polo farm. These are among the ways a Hawaiʻi federal contractor allegedly enriched himself with funds intended to uplift Native Hawaiians in a case prosecutors would later describe as a “fraud scheme and embezzlement.”
Christopher Dawson, who died by suicide last year, and his companies had won hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts over the years — and the feds didn’t make him compete with any other bidders with the understanding that proceeds would help Native Hawaiians by supporting such things as promoting the culture, building homes and supporting orphaned children.
Yet even after allegations of wrongdoing surfaced, Dawson’s companies received more than $500 million in payments.
