Civil Beat has been trying to get the investigative files on public officials convicted of bribery for more than a year.

Luana Mahi may have recused herself from decisions involving the contracts but she still signed off or recommended approval of contracts.

There's an ongoing review of grants administered by the Office of Economic Development under director Luana Mahi.

Details of the grant awards and conflicts of interest were contained in a redacted ethics advisory opinion in July.

Learn what it takes to pull off an investigation into public corruption.

The manner and cause of his death are still not known.

The case was unsuccessful in criminal court, but civil cases have a lower standard of proof.

Federal prosecutors take a case to trial and lose in less than 1% of cases. So what happened in one of Hawaii's most high-profile corruption trials?

A federal prosecution ended in acquittal but left behind crumbs that state officials could pursue. 

Prosecutors presented only circumstantial evidence that left room for reasonable doubt, a juror said.