One of President Obama's close friends has been arrested in an prostitution sting operation.
Robert 'Bobby' Titcomb, 49 - a long time friend of the President - was arrested after he allegedly approached an undercover police officer posing as a prostitute in the downtown area of Honolulu.
Titcomb was one of four arrested during the sting, according to the Honolulu police department.
The news could not have come at a worse time for Mr Obama, who has just launched his 'billion dollar' 2012 re-election campaign.
Police have been conducting undercover operations in the downtown Honolulu area after reports from general public that the area was a hotbed for prostitution.
Titcomb, 49, of Waialua, was arrested on suspicion of solicitation Monday night.
He allegedly offered money for sex near the intersection of South Street and Pohukaina Street at about 9:40 pm.
According to Hawaii News Now, Mr Obama and Titcomb have been close friends since high school and the pair often get together to golf and dine when the President visits the state.
Titcomb has spoken to the press about the President on several occasions.
In 2004, just before Mr Obama successfully ran for to become senator for Illinois, Titcomb spoke to the Honolulu Star Bulletin.
He said: 'I could see he [Obama] was bound for bigger things.
'He looked at the world more globally than the rest of us. There was something driven about him.
'But he also played basketball, tennis and hung out at the beach with the rest of us.'
Titcomb also visited Mr Obama in Chicago shortly after his friend had moved there.
'Barry [Barack] told me, 'I really want to be able to do something for the community, but to do what is necessary I'll need a law degree,'' Titcomb added.
'That's why he applied to Harvard. It was never about making money for Barry. That's never what motivated him.'
According to the paper, Titcomb was arrested in 1987 for a DUI offence.
The president last met Titcomb during the first family’s Christmas and New Year holiday.
The Bulletin reported that on December 30, the president and his family spent the day at Titcomb's beachfront home in Waialua, where they ate barbecue and played volleyball.
Titcomb was a year behind Obama at Punahou High School, but did not graduate.
Titcomb was one of a few close friends of the President to accompany him in 2008 when he scattered the ashes of his grandmother Madelyn Dunham, who died of cancer at the age of 86.
He was pictured alongside the President at a Hawaiian beauty spot alongside Obama's half sister Maya Soetoro-Ng as they paid their last respects at the Lanai Lookout, a scenic area of coastline on the southeast corner of Oahu, Hawaii.
Titcomb's father was a well known judge on the island for over 30 years, before he died in 2000 of a heart attack.
Judge Frederick James Kealiimahiai Titcomb was also a member of the Screen Actors Guild and regularly appeared on TV series Hawaii Five-O.
Judge Titcomb came from a colorful line of Chinese-Hawaiian-British ancestry. His great-great-grandfather, Charles Titcomb, came to Hawaii in the mid-1800s from New England.
He tried to grow silk, then coffee and finally sugar.
Honolulu police tonight released a statement saying: ' At 9:40 pm on April 4, a 49-year-old male from Waialua was arrested for prostitution in downtown Honolulu.
'The male was released at 11 pm after posting $500 bail. The male was one of four males arrested in a reverse prostitution operation by Honolulu police.'
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