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The president of one of Honolulu’s major engineering firms took the extraordinary step of publishing a letter on his company’s website to state publicly that he hadn’t written a “false and defamatory” letter about governor candidate Mufi Hannemann and a few of his campaign supporters.

Russell Figueiroa, president of R.M. Towill Corp., said the undated initial letter had “a forged signature.”

“This is to inform you I did not write that letter, and I have never given anyone permission to use my name in connection with outright lies and negative innuendos made about Mufi Hannemann, Bruce Matsushita, Trudi Saito and others,” . “I can only assume this is a despicable smear campaign being used against Mufi Hannemann and his supporters, timed for the coming elections.”

The single-page letter that Figueiroa said was circulated under his name was sent to members of the architectural and engineering community as well as to members of the Waialae Country Club, where Matsushita is the , Bill McCorriston, an attorney representing Figueiroa, told Civil Beat. (McCorriston is a member of Hannemann’s .)

Photos of Saito, the city’s deputy managing director, and Matsushita, an insurance agent who supports Hannemann, are pictured at the top of the alleged forged letter.

The alleged forgery, which contains spelling and grammatical errors and liberal use of capital letters to highlight the names of prominent Hawaii residents, is signed “Russell Figueroia, RM Towill Corp.” Whoever wrote the initial letter knew some specific details, such as the cell phone number of Figueiroa.

Figueiroa — note the spelling difference — posted a letter dated Aug. 20 on the website of flatly denying he wrote the other letter.

The Aug. 20 letter states that “this matter has been reported to the authorities, and my attorneys are investigating the unlawful use of my name in connection with this outrage.”

McCorriston told Civil Beat Wednesday, “We are following up on some pretty good leads but do not have a definitive answer yet.”

The fake letter flap comes just as the race for governor has taken a turn for the negative, Hannemann’s fortunes have seemed to turn for the worse and political leaders are urging candidates to keep their election tactics clean.

Figueiroa referred Civil Beat’s questions to attorney McCorriston, who explained that Figueiroa found out about the letter when he began getting phone calls. The alleged forgery includes his cell phone number and encourages people to call him.

McCorriston said the letter was distributed to Hawaii architects and engineers, and to members of the Waialae Country Club. He said Figueiroa told the FBI about the letter and has been interviewed by the agency regarding the letters.

A sponsored link appears on Google when searching for the words “Russell Figueiroa” that connects to Figueiroa’s Aug. 20 letter.

“This is the lowest of lows — to pick on Mr. Figueiroa, who has no idea why he is being singled out as a a victim of this dirty trick,” said McCorriston.

Elisa Yadao, a member of the Hannemann campaign, told Civil Beat, “We do know about the letter but we do not know where it came from.”

On Thursday, a day after this story was published, Hannemann’s Democratic opponent, Neil Abercrombie, issued a statement about the issue. “This forged letter and any such acts like it are despicable and the perpetrators should be caught and punished. They do nothing but harm to our entire community.”

Honolulu-based R.M. Towill is a planning, civil engineering, survey, construction management, environmental services and wastewater company with major projects in Hawaii — including government contracts — and throughout the Pacific Rim.

McCorriston said he did not know if Figueiroa supports Hannemann or has given him money, but he did say Figueiroa is “not active in the campaign.”

According to the Campaign Spending Commission, the Hannemann campaign $6,000 in November 2009, as did Pamela Figueiroa, identified as a surveyor with R.M. Towill.

Figueiroa and Politics

If the author(s) of the alleged forgery were looking to push scurrilous rumors involving a well-known engineer with deep pockets, government ties and run-ins with the law, Russell Figueiroa makes for a ripe target.

Figueiroa and his firm have been deeply involved in Hawaii politics and government projects.

The Honolulu Advertiser said Figueiroa and Donald Kim, R.M. Towill’s former chairman and a former University of Hawaii regent, “pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of making a political donation under a false name in 2004.” The contributions were to former Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris.

The Advertiser in 2006 that R.M. Towill Corp. took in $9.4 million worth of nonbid state and county projects, “including a $2 million construction management contract to replace ceilings at Honolulu International Airport.”

In April 2006, Figueiroa was fined $50,800 by the Campaign Spending Commission.

In March of this year, the Advertiser , “Executives at R.M. Towill Corp. contributed $27,000 to Hannemann’s campaign during the second half of 2009. Since 2005, the engineering firm received nearly $30 million in state and city work, including a $4.9 million subcontract on the city’s mass-transit project.”

OpenSecrets.org reports that Figueiroa to Daniel K. Inouye, Abercrombie, Colleen Hanabusa, Mazie Hirono, the Republican Party of Hawaii, the Hawaii Democratic Party, Barack Obama and Mitch McConnell from 2007 to 2010.

Engineers and Donations

In the first half of 2010, Trudi Saito contributed $4,225 in printing and yard signs to the Hannemann campaign, according to the , while Bruce Matsushita contributed $3,223 in printing and yard signs.

While a number of engineers gave money to Hannemann this year, Figueiroa’s name is not yet among them. But Towill engineers Ken Sakai, Chester Koga, Valerie Lum, Leighton Lum and company vice president James Yamamoto are on the Hannemann donor list.

Inouye: “Let’s Keep It Clean.”

The letter flap comes as Inouye, the Democratic Party’s standard bearer, “all who consider themselves Democrats to campaign vigorously for the hearts and minds of voters based on the power of our ideas and the strength of our campaign organizations…Let’s keep it clean.”

Inouye wrote, “In recent days, mean spirited comments and negative statements were made about two good Democratic candidates — Mufi Hannemann and Kirk Caldwell. It is one thing to endorse a candidate, it is quite another to tear down and gut the opposition by engaging in character assassination.” Inouye did not identify the comments or statements.