A 66-year-old Kona woman will plead not guilty today to charges outlined in a superseding indictment that accuses her of falsifying tax filings while earning more than $5.2 million selling “100% Kona coffee” that was sourced from foreign countries and bought in California and Washington.

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A 66-year-old Kona woman will plead not guilty today to charges outlined in a superseding indictment that accuses her of falsifying tax filings while earning more than $5.2 million selling “100% Kona coffee” that was sourced from foreign countries and bought in California and Washington.

Patricia Johnson, aka “Trish” Johnson, was originally charged in a 24-count indictment Sept. 25, 2025, with 16 counts of wire fraud, five counts of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specific unlawful activity and three counts of obstructing an official proceeding.

A federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment last Thursday that added four additional counts of filing false income tax returns. From 2019 to 2022 Johnson allegedly submitted IRS form 1040 terms that understated how much money she made.

“Ms. Johnson is innocent and will plead not guilty to these additional charges, just as she did to the original ones,” Johnson’s attorney, William A.Harrison, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in a statement. “An indictment is only an accusation, and adding new counts does not make the government’s case any stronger. We look forward to trial, where the government will have to prove its claims beyond a reasonable doubt. Until then, we will not try this case in the media.”

Kona coffee beans have to be grown in Kona, and if it is mixed with other beans, the percentage has to be accurately labeled and marketed.

Between October 2012 and April 2024, Johnson allegedly made millions by advertising, labeling and selling coffee “described as 100% Kona coffee when in fact Johnson knew that the coffee was not 100% Kona coffee,” according to the 27-page superseding indictment.

The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking forfeiture of $5,260,095 from Johnson’s business.

Federal prosecutors also accuse Johnson of trying to manipulate federal grand jury witnesses into changing their testimony to protect her. She allegedly told a witness to plead the fifth and did not have to say anything about coffee.

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Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca A. Perlmutter is prosecuting the case.

Federal agents seized more than $830,000 in cash after a series of April 2024 searches of Johnson’s business, home, storage units and four safe deposit boxes at a Kona bank branch.

Johnson’s Kona Coffee Cafe on Alii Drive opened in the 1990s and purportedly sold “100% Kona Coffee” in drinks, coffee beans, and chocolate-covered coffee beans.

Kona Coffee Cafe’s physical location is closed but its online business remains open.

She allegedly bought more than 194,000 pounds of green coffee beans, including 68,000 pounds of Peaberry beans, from wholesalers in Seattle and Oakland that she allegedly sold as pure Kona coffee.

The beans were sourced from foreign countries including Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Papa New Guinea, Peru and Timor. None of the coffee beans Johnson sold were Kona coffee beans.

Any coffee claiming to be 100% Hawaii-grown and Hawaii-processed coffee from a “single geographic origin” within the state needs to be labeled according to state law.

The “identity statement” on the coffee must consist of the single geographic origin of the Hawaii-grown and Hawaii-processed coffee (of green coffee beans from one geographic origin) followed by the word “coffee,” according to the state Department of Agriculture, and “100%” may be used immediately preceding the geographic origin.”

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