This story was produced byHonolulu Civil Beat, a nonprofit news organization covering Hawaiʻi that specializes in accountability and in-depth enterprise coverage. For more stories like this,subscribe to their newsletters.
Nick Grube
Honolulu Civil Beat
A Hawaiʻi congressman has called on the Small Business Administration’s inspector general to launch an inquiry into a federal program intended to give Native Hawaiians and other Indigenous groups access to massive no-bid contracts in exchange for a promise to use profits to uplift their people.
The request by Rep. Ed Case stems from an ongoing investigation into Native Hawaiian defense contractor Christopher Dawson, who died by suicide in December 2024 while the target of a federal criminal probe into whether he cheated the program to enrich himself.
Dawson owned a suite of companies that had landed more than $2 billion dollars in contracts largely through the SBA’s 8(a) business development program. But SBA officials and U.S. Justice Department prosecutors claim Dawson abused the program by siphoning millions of dollars away from his companies to spend on luxury properties, private jets and polo.
Trump administration officials and other Republicans have seized upon the Dawson case and others in an attempt to gut a program that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently described as a race-based handout that’s a “breeding ground for fraud.”
Case, a Democrat, said his intention is not to join in the GOP chorus, but instead to shore up a program that, despite troubles, is rooted in noble ideals.
In a Jan. 2 letter to SBA Deputy Inspector General Sheldon Shoemaker, Case cited an investigation by Civil Beat and ProPublica that detailed Dawson’s alleged transgressions and the SBA’s actions. In it, he requested a review of the agency’s oversight of the 8(a) program’s contracting preferences for Indigenous groups, including Native American tribes, Alaska Native corporations and nonprofit Native Hawaiian organizations.
Specifically, Case asked for an assessment of the “effectiveness and transparency” of 8(a) participants’ community give-back efforts and whether there are any “gaps or areas for improvement.”
“While I strongly support federal efforts to help the indigenous peoples of our nation, recent news reports have highlighted potential concerns with the contracting preferences provided to at least one NHO,” Case wrote. “Such allegations and publicly acknowledged criminal investigations undermine Americans’ trust in the 8(a) Program and the goal of ensuring our nation’s indigenous peoples have a fair opportunity to participate in federal contracting opportunities.”
In an interview at his congressional offices in Washington, Case said he has yet to receive a response from the inspector general’s office. But he described Dawson’s case as serious, and said it warrants more scrutiny of the 8(a) program as a whole.
Case said he wants to know whether the Dawson situation was an isolated incident or a reflection of broader deficiencies. He also encouraged anyone with concerns about the program to share them with his office.
“One thing that’s patently obvious,” Case said, “is that the actual oversight by SBA is insufficient.”
Calls For More Oversight From Various Camps
The SBA has struggled for decades to police the 8(a) program, and the Trump administration has made significant cuts to the agency’s workforce, which, Case said, further undermines its ability to provide accountability.
Case went to the inspector general, rather than SBA leadership or other Trump officials, because he wanted an independent assessment of the program free from political influence. He said he also didn’t want to provide ammunition to those seeking to dismantle a program he generally supports.
“For me, this is about defending a program against an outright attack, while still providing my responsibility of oversight to determine whether this program actually is working,” he said.
Case’s call for more oversight comes as the Trump administration and other Republicans try to dismantle the program as part of its ongoing initiative to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the federal government.
In June, SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler announced a full-scale audit of the program after two 8(a) contractors pleaded guilty to taking part in a $550 million bribery scheme involving a federal contracting officer. At the time, she said the purpose was to “stop bad actors from making the kind of backroom deals that have already cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars” and to “start rewarding merit instead of those who game the system.”
A few months later, the Treasury Department announced its own audit after James O’Keefe, a right-wing influencer, cast doubt on an 8(a) company, owned by a California tribe, that was purportedly using the program to win contracts and pass them along to other non-qualifying firms.
U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican and chair of the Senate Small Business Committee, launched her own inquiry into the program. In December, she sent letters to 22 agencies, including the Department of Defense, asking top Trump officials to pause all 8(a) sole source contracts. In her letter to Hegseth, Ernst specifically cited the scandal involving Dawson as a reason to heed her call.
Just last week, Hegseth issued a video statement in which he said he wanted to take a “sledgehammer” to the program. Hegseth said he was particularly concerned about 8(a) firms being used as pass-throughs for larger consulting firms and that he intends to conduct a “line-by-line review” of all 8(a) sole-source defense contracts over $20 million.
That threshold specifically targets Native Hawaiian Organizations and other Native groups, including tribes and Alaska Native corporations, since firms owned by those groups can win sole source contracts above the $4.5 million and $7 million caps imposed on other 8(a) companies.
While Case said he could support an honest attempt at reform, what he’s seeing out of the current administration is thinly veiled. “It’s basically just a DOGE attack on the 8(a) program,” Case said. “I don’t think they’re trying to understand how the 8(a) program is functioning, I think they’re trying to take it out.”
‘Somebody Will Try To Attack You One Day’
Case’s concerns about the 8(a) program pre-date the controversy surrounding Dawson.
His main focus has been on the community benefits and whether NHOs have been following through on their promise to help Native Hawaiians. The SBA requires NHOs to report how much they’re spending on these benefits each year, but those disclosures are based on the “honor system,” Case said.
In 2021, Case and then-U.S. Rep. Kai Kahele sent a letter to the Native Hawaiian Organization Association, a trade group, seeking details about how much money was being spent to “serve, empower and uplift the Native Hawaiian community.” Such data, the congressmen wrote, would be invaluable to help “explain and defend the NHO program to policy makers and federal government officials.”
That oversight, Case said, was meant to push the association and its members to demonstrate that the benefits they were providing were real and to send a signal that Congress was paying attention. It also served as a warning that NHOs should be prepared to properly track and document those benefits because “somebody will try to attack you one day.”
That day has come, he said, and he’s hoping the NHOs are prepared.
For its part, the association has tried to downplay the import of the Dawson investigation as well as the increased pressure from the Trump administration.
Over the summer, after Loeffler announced the SBA’s 8(a) audit, Cariann Ah Loo — the head of the Nakupuna Foundation and president of the association — said in a statement to Civil Beat and ProPublica that the vast majority of NHOs “meet their compliance obligations and deliver excellent value to the government and the taxpayer.”
“Our members take those responsibilities seriously,” Ah Loo said, “and have repeatedly proven we can withstand any level of scrutiny.”
She did not respond to a follow up request for comment about Hegseth’s latest announcement or Case’s request for an inspector general review of the program.
The post Hawaiʻi Democrat Seeks Federal Review Of Native Hawaiian Contracting Program appeared first on ICT.
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