Former USDA Official Pleads Guilty to Receiving an Illegal Gratuity

HONOLULU - United States Attorney Ken Sorenson announced that Jason Shitanishi, 60, of Honolulu, Hawaii pled guilty in federal court today to receiving an illegal gratuity as a public official. Sentencing is set for July 17, 2026, before Senior U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor.

According to information presented to the court, on or about April 17, 2020, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) initiated the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) to provide direct payments to farmers, ranchers, and consumers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The program was administered by the USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) and provided payments to producers of certain commodities that experienced COVID-19 related losses. The FSA required an applicant for CFAP assistance to complete and submit an application form. The public official responsible for reviewing and approving a CFAP application for each county was the FSA County Executive Director.

In 2020 and 2021, Shitanishi was employed by the FSA as a County Executive Director for the City and County of Honolulu. On or about April 12, 2021, a woman submitted a CFAP application to Shitanishi that falsely claimed she operated a farm with $685,500 in commodity sales in 2019. The woman also claimed the farm was in the County of Maui, which was the responsibility of another County Executive Director, who was located on Maui and familiar with the farms there. The woman asked Shitanishi if he would accept her application, rather than require her to submit her application to the Maui County Executive Director. Shitanishi obtained the necessary approvals from the FSA to consider the woman's CFAP application and then approved it. As a result of the false representation on the woman's CFAP application, the FSA issued the woman a payment of $65,745, to which she was not entitled.

On or about April 18, 2021, the woman then gave Shitanishi a check for $5,000, which Shitanishi understood was for accepting responsibility for the woman's CFAP application for her Maui farm. Shitanishi later deposited the check into his own personal bank account.

"Our public officials are entrusted to execute their duties honestly and with integrity. In breaching that trust, Shitanishi not only violated the law, but he betrayed the community he was charged with serving," said U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson. "We will continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute those who breach the public trust."

If convicted, Shitanishi faces a maximum term of imprisonment of two years, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of not more than one year.

The FBI and Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregg Paris Yates is prosecuting the case.