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Organized Crime |
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Honolulu businessman whom Robert Booth Nichols listed as a former employer, whose address an FBI wiretap affidavit tied to Nichols in 1987, and whom Spy's sources called a high-ranking Yakuza figure. |
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2026-10-08 |
Harold Okimoto is a figure linked to Robert Booth Nichols and alleged organized crime activities, particularly the Yakuza. He is described as a 67-year-old car dealer in Hawaii and believed by some sources to be a top Japanese organized crime figure based in Hawaii, acting as a top agent in the Yakuza overseas.1
Michael Riconosciuto claimed that Nichols was under Okimoto's influence and referred to Nichols as Okimoto's "god-son." Okimoto was also represented as an intelligence person who had worked under Frank Carlucci for years, and reportedly performed services for the United States during World War II, for which he was rewarded.1
The writer Cheri Seymour wrote that Okimoto's company, Island Tobacco, sold cigarettes at the Casino du Liban, which was controlled by the Syria mob and used as a front by narcotics people.1
FBI Affidavit and Hawaii Registrations
The 1987 continuation wiretap affidavit of the FBI agent Thomas Gates states that a Hawaii-plated car seen after Eugene Giaquinto's July 15, 1987 meeting was registered to Wells Fargo at a Honolulu residential address where a Harold Tadao Okimoto lived, which was also the address Nichols gave at his 1985 arrest; that Honolulu police records showed Okimoto arrested for gambling in 1977; and that Hawaii motor-vehicle records showed more than fifty vehicles registered to Wells Fargo Bank at different residences, while the bank had no auto-leasing business or banking facilities in Hawaii under that name. Gates wrote that the registration method led him to believe "some type of covert activity may be involved."2 On July 27, 1987 Nichols gave Giaquinto the same Hawaii telephone number he had given at his 1985 arrest, saying "Harold (possibly Okimoto)" would have a tape put on the answering machine.2
Peter Zokosky told Seymour and Kelly O'Meara in 2001 that Nichols had once been caught stealing from Okimoto in Hawaii, after which Okimoto brought him into his business. Seymour summarized a December 2, 1982 FBI Los Angeles report as stating that Okimoto took Nichols "under his wing" in Honolulu and had reportedly been involved in racketeering since 1962.3 John Connolly reported in Spy (magazine) in January 1993 that Nichols listed Okimoto as a former employer on a weapons-permit application and that intelligence sources believed Okimoto a high-ranking member of the Yakuza.4 Seymour's 1992 VORTEX account lists Okimoto among the directors of Meridian Arms, the subsidiary of Meridian International Logistics.5
Footnotes
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Seymour, Cheri. The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. Sole source for the passages so cited. ↩︎
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Affidavit of Special Agent Thomas G. Gates in support of an application to continue interception of wire communications of Martin Bacow, Eugene Giaquinto, Joseph Garofalo, Robert Nichols and others, before Judge J. Spencer Letts, C.D. Cal. (continuation affidavit citing intercepts through September 1, 1987), Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Gates." https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks (file Gates.pdf), paragraphs 46 and 84. ↩︎
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Seymour, Cheri. The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal. TrineDay, 2010, chapter 22. Sole source. ↩︎
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Connolly, John. "The Story That Killed Danny Casolaro." Spy, January 1993. https://archive.org/details/SpyMagazine ↩︎
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Seymour, Cheri. "VORTEX," diary dated February 24, 1992, p. 11. https://archive.org/details/VORTEXDocument ↩︎