Hawaii Superferry substantially underreported its state lobbying expenses last year as it fought an environmental impact statement and then asked for special legislation that allowed it to resume ferry service after an environmental review was ordered by the state Supreme Court.

Superferry executives at first reported $21,960 in lobbying expenses but, after being contacted by the state Ethics Commission, amended the reports to reflect $379,431 in lobbying expenses.

Ian Lind, a freelance writer and blogger who works for state Rep. Lyla Berg, D-18th (Kuliçouçou, Niu Valley, çAina Haina), had written the Ethics Commissions with his suspicions about the accuracy of Superferry’s reports and separate reports filed by the advocacy group National Popular Vote.

Lind reported the new Superferry lobbying figures in his blog on Tuesday and previously reported the amended reports for National Popular Vote.

Dan Mollway, the executive director of the Ethics Commission, said the commission usually asks for voluntary compliance with the lobbying disclosure law before seeking enforcement action. Willful violations of the law can bring $500 fines.

Mollway said the lobbying disclosure law can be confusing but he could not explain the large discrepancies in Superferry’s reports.

“I’m not sure how the requirements were missed,” Mollway said, adding that Superferry was eager to amend the reports after being contacted by a commission staff attorney.

The Advertiser reported last year that Superferry had hired some of the state’s top lobbyists and public relations executives to help the project at the state Legislature and with the media.

“Last year there was a great deal of legislative activity related to Hawaii Superferry which required continuous information updates and production of briefing materials for legislators,” the company said in a statement tonight. “Our initial filing reflected fees paid to lobbyists. We, subsequently, reviewed our expenses and were advised by counsel that lobbying expenses should also include public opinion research and the production of materials that might be viewed by legislators.”

National Popular Vote, a California-based group that wants states to elect the president by popular vote instead of the Electoral College, spent $74,979 on state lobbying between May and December last year, mostly on media advertising. The group had initially reported $7,778 in lobbying expenses for that period.

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