An ex-Hawaii defense contractor and prominent campaign contributor was sentenced last week to 33 months in federal prison for his role in a conspiracy to funnel $205,600 in illegal campaign contributions to a political action committee and U.S. Senator Susan Collins.

Martin Kao, 51, the former CEO and 99% owner of Martin Defense Group LLC, formerly known as Navatek LLC, is already serving 87 months for COVID-19 relief fraud and the sentence he received Monday will run concurrently.

“Federal campaign finance laws serve the dual purposes of prohibiting any one individual or corporation from gaining improper influence through excessive campaign contributions and providing transparency to voters and government regulators. When an individual seeks to use a “straw donor” to exceed the contri

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