David C. Farmer vs. Harmon - Witness Dr. Mary Bitterman

David C. Farmer, Successor-Trustee vs. Harmon

(Formerly Woo vs. Harmon & Nicholson vs. Harmon)

U.S. District Court For the District of Hawaii

—

DEFENDANT’S WITNESS

MARY BITTERMAN

A fourth-generation Californian, Mary G. F. Bitterman became President and Chief Executive Officer of KQED, Inc. on November 1, 1993. Previously, Dr. Bitterman served as Executive Director of the Hawaii Public Broadcasting Authority, Director of the Voice of America, Director of the Hawaii State Department of Commerce and Consumer Affiars, and Director of the East-West Center's Institute of Culture and Communication.

Dr. Bitterman has served on various committees of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and on the boards of the Pacific Mountain Network, Hawaii Public Radio, the Pacific Telecommunications Council, and the International Center for Communications in San Diego. She has been vice president of TIDE 2000, an international telecommunications development consortium. She has produced several documentaries for public television and has written numerous papers on telecommunications development and the role of media in developing societies. She is an Honorary Member of the National Presswomen's Federation and a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Dr. Bitterman received her B.A. from Santa Clara University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College.

http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/intlcomm/bitterman.html

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NEW DISCOVERY (03-14-09): More undisclosed conflicts of interest between Steven Guttman, Mary Lou Woo, David Farmer, Robert Kihune, Sandwich Isles Communications, Bank of Hawaii, Gilbert Tam, Mary Bitterman, Donna Tanoue, Barack Obama, Steve Case, AOL, Dan Case, Punahou School, Citigroup, Robert Rubin, Henry Paulson, Suzanne Case, Faye Kurren, The Nature Conservancy, Haunani Apoliona, Goldman Sachs, Kamehameha Schools, Michael Parsons, etc.

March 14, 2009

Ex-CEO of Bankoh considered
for Citigroup board

By David Segal, Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Former Bank of Hawaii Chief Executive Michael O'Neill reportedly is one of the candidates being considered for a position on the board of directors at financially troubled Citigroup Inc.

O'Neill, who turned around Bankoh's lagging fortunes in less than four years before retiring at age 57 in August 2004, was mentioned along with former U.S. Bancorp CEO Jerry Grundhofer and William S. Thompson, former co-chief of bond investment manager Pimco, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper said Citigroup is expected to announce the board changes next week when it files its proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any nominees would have to be formally approved by the board and voted on by shareholders.

O'Neill took over then-called Pacific Century Financial Corp. from Larry Johnson on Nov. 3, 2000, and in less than four years transformed the bank into a more efficient operation, elevated earnings to record highs and increased shareholder value nearly fourfold.

He also became somewhat of a TV personality with the bank's "Tell Mike" campaign.

Richard Parsons, a one-time University of Hawaii student who took over as chairman last month, is one of the few Citigroup directors with experience in both banking and leading a large company.

Honolulu Star-Bulletin

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The following is a listing of named witnesses in this case who have factual connections with the subject entity. Each underlined name has been linked to a detailed description of that witness to enable the reader to more easily CONNECT THE DOTS TO...

AIPAC

Investors Equity Insurance Company

Reliance Insurance Group

Judith Neustadter Fuqua

James B. “Jim” Nicholson

Dan Inouye

* * * * *
THE AIPAC PHOTO GALLERY

http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/tik0709/frontpage/israellobby

http://zioneocon.blogspot.com/bush%20speech%20to%20AIPAC.jpg

www.radioislam.org/bush/jewishpower.htm

yannone.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html

www.kycbs.net/AIPAC-Bush-7-20-3.mht

www.kycbs.net/AIPAC-Rice.mht

www.kycbs.net/AIPAC-Clinton.mht

www.kycbs.net/AIPAC-Bush-McCain.mht

www.kycbs.net/AIPAC-McCain-Lieberman.mht

www.kycbs.net/AIPAC-Washington-Gabfest.mht

* * * * *

LEARN MORE FACTS ABOUT AIPAC:

http://www.stopaipac.org/

http://www.stopaipac.org/spystory.htm

www.hadassah.org/education/content/influentials_israel.asp

http://www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/021108/hawaii.shtml

http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1721.htm

http://www.antiwar.com/cole/?articleid=3467

http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2007/06/lfow.html

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=AIPAC

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/03/6138/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zidtiC-UPNU

http://www.franklingate.com/aipac-cheney.htm

http://www.kycbs.net/AIPAC.htm

http://www.kycbs.net/AIPAC-9-11.mht

http://www.kycbs.net/AIPAC-Obama.mht

http://www.kycbs.net/AIPAC-Bush-Abramoff-Greenberg.mht

http://www.kycbs.net/AIPAC-Mische-7-11-7.mht

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vwV6O5AGKyw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8gHmJUa720

http://ifamericaknew.com/us_ints/mc-aipac.html

http://www.antiwar.com/glantz/?articleid=9697

www.literarylotus.com/2007/12/wimr-brian-schatz.html

http://www.kycbs.net/AIPAC-Lingle-Abramoff-Brownstein.mht

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NEW DISCOVERY (11-30-08):

THE BEST GOVERNMENT MONEY CAN BUY

* * * * *

September 24, 2000

Bankoh investors banking on board

By Frank Cho, Advertiser Staff Writer

After two years of layoffs, troubled loans and growing unrest among investors, Bank of Hawaii and its parent company are facing a crucial test: Analysts say it’s now time for Hawaii’s second biggest banking company to deliver on its promise of higher profits.

The $14.4 billion Pacific Century Financial Corp. stumbled badly in its loan business earlier this year – so badly that the companyís stock price hit a five-year low and CEO Lawrence Johnson announced his retirement amid rising investor pressure.

Now the company’s board of directors is itself under intense pressure from Wall Street to get the bank back on track in one of the most critical periods in its 102-year history as they search for a new chief executive.

Many analysts were reluctant to talk specifically about the board and its performance over the past couple of years, citing their sensitive relationship with the company. But some talked about general frustrations.

"There are some things that clearly frustrate us: Why is it that all the economic indicators are showing that the Hawaiian economy is improving, yet the bank is still reporting difficulties?" said Andrew Wellington, a New York-based analyst with Pzena Investment Management, one of Pacific Century’s biggest institutional investors.

That is one of the many questions Pacific Century’s board will have to address in the months to come in order to restore confidence among investors.

Board members – typically 10 to 12 at any one time – oversee Pacific Century’s operations, monitor finances, guide acquisitions, plot strategic moves and most visibly serve as boss to the chief executive.

"I think we have been a very responsive board," said Mary Bitterman, 55, a director since 1994 and one of Pacific Century’s 11 current board members....

Also sitting on the board are Johnson and Pacific Centuryís president and chief operating officer Richard Dahl, a leading candidate for the chief executive job.

Like other boards, Pacific Century has among its members the brightest and most experienced corporate talent in Hawai’i. It pays its directors a retainer of $8,000 a year plus $750 and expenses for each of the quarterly meetings they attend. Members get another $3,500 annually if they chair one of Pacific Century’s three standing committees.

Pacific Century directors also sit on the board of the company’s Bank of Hawaii subsidiary, which pays them another $8,000 in retainers and $600 for each meeting they attend. That board meets monthly.

It’s difficult to say exactly how much money directors end up collecting, because company reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission do not include attendance records. But for that kind of money, investors are expecting big things from Pacific Centuryís board.

"We are looking for them to find a capable leader who will be able to exploit the full value of what we still think is a really great franchise," Wellington said.

The analyst said Hawai’s geographic isolation has insulated the company from some of the competitive pressures on Mainland banks. "The management has been slow to adapt some of the management practices of the Mainland, so may be a bit behind the times," Wellington said.

Most Mainland banks had already completed their restructuring when Pacific Century launched its own initiatives in 1998.

'Will rise to the occasion'

But Bitterman and the other directors hope to put to rest any qualms investors may have with the bank and their ability to oversee the companyís management team.

"We definitely will rise to the occasion," Bitterman said.

She pointed to the recent addition of two outside directors from the Mainland with extensive backgrounds in banking, technology and acquisitions as examples of the board adding necessary expertise.

Two other board members contacted by The Advertiser declined to comment, saying the board was referring all questions to Bitterman, the lead director.

The board has hired Korn-Ferry, the world’s biggest executive recruiting firm, to help it find and screen CEO candidates over the next several months. It also is hoping to leverage its own expertise in the final selection.

Heenan, who has an MBA from Columbia University and a doctorate from Wharton School and the University of Pennsylvania, once ran one of Hawaií’s Big Five companies and knows what it takes to succeed in Hawaii, analysts said.

Stein, a former vice chairman at BankAmerica Corp., was responsible for technology, operations and payments at the banking giant and brings much-needed banking expertise to the board.

"From a collective standpoint, I think the board is patient and likes to digest information," said Jim Bradshaw, a Portland, Ore.-based banking analyst with D.A. Davidson & Co.

But the board also must decide whether to continue the companyís long tradition of promoting from within, or go outside and choose an agent of change who might face resistance.

Burned in Asia

The next chairman and chief executive will have to focus on the company’s flagging share price and long-term strategy. Pacific Century has been burned in Asia, its South Pacific holdings are not performing as expected, and it has missed much of the U.S. economic boom on the Mainland.

For decades Pacific Century – formerly Bancorp Hawaii – produced some of the stateís best-trained banking talent. But experts said it also produced a protective and insular management culture, one that resisted big change and big risk, and was slow to carry out major decisions.

"The decision before the board is very important to the institution and the communities it serves," Bitterman said. "But it is a decision that has to be deliberated in a prudent way."

While a short list of candidates is still months away, insiders said the name dropping already has begun. While Dahl is the only one to acknowledge being a candidate, speculation abounds on other local possibilities.

Analysts are quick to point out that with the consolidation of the banking industry over the last five years, there is no shortage of top-flight talent on the Mainland.

"I don’t think anyone is going to make a really big bet on the company until they see who (the board) is going to bring in as CEO," said Randy Havre, chief executive officer for Hawaii Venture Group and a director for Neugenesis, a California biotechnology company.

Bitterman, who has served as banking regulator in Gov. George Aryoshií’s administration, knows this board will be judged on its selection of the next CEO, but she and the board refuse to rush into any selection.

"It’s not a popularity contest," she said. "Hawaii does not have a monopoly on sensitivity. We will look for someone with a good head and a good heart. One without the other would not be sufficient."

http://upyourshawaii.com/924business.html

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January 7, 2008

Trial Opens for 5 Former
Insurance Execs

By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, Forbes, AP

HARTFORD, Conn. - The former chairman and CEO of the world's largest insurer initiated a deal that led to five ex-executives being charged with participating in a scheme to manipulate the company's financial statements, a federal prosecutor said Monday during opening arguments at their trial.

Four former executives of Berkshire Hathaway (nyse: BRKA - news - people )'s General Re Corp. and a former executive of American International Group Inc. (nyse: AIG - news - people ) are charged in the scheme involving AIG's financial statements.

Prosecutor Raymond Patricco said former AIG CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, who has not been charged in the case, started the scheme in 2000, after AIG's stock price dropped 6 percent, representing a loss of $12 billion to shareholders. The price dropped because loss reserves had declined.

"Greenberg and AIG came to Gen Re for this deal," Patricco said.

Attorneys for the defendants denied their clients did anything wrong Monday and said the case involved complex, subjective accounting. They attacked government witnesses - two senior Gen Re executives who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to falsify SEC filings - as out to save themselves.

They also said their clients did not benefit financially from the scheme.

"This is not Enron or WorldCom," said Anthony Pacheco, attorney for former General Re Senior Vice President Christopher P. Garand, referring to two of the biggest recent business scandals.

Greenberg, who headed New York-based AIG for nearly 40 years, has denied any wrongdoing. He was referred to as an unindicted coconspirator in an indictment.

Allegations of accounting irregularities, including the Gen Re transactions, led to his resignation in 2005.

At issue in the trial of the former executives are two reinsurance transactions between AIG and Stamford-based General Re. Reinsurance policies are backups purchased by insurance companies to completely or partly insure the risk they have assumed for their customers.

Prosecutors said the transactions were initiated by an AIG senior executive to quell criticism by analysts of a reduction in AIG's loss reserves in the third quarter of 2000. The indictment alleges that the aim was to make it appear that AIG increased its loss reserves by about $500 million in 2000 and 2001, pacifying the analysts and investors and artificially boosting the company's stock price.

"But the evidence in this case will show that deal was nothing more than a sham transaction," Patricco said. "The defendants in this case knew what appeared in the contracts was a lie."

Prosecutors said Greenberg called his friend, former General Re CEO Ronald Ferguson, who is one of the defendants, and told him that AIG wanted to increase its loss reserves by $500 million, but did not want to bear the risk.

Ferguson agreed to the deal Greenberg proposed, Patricco said.

For a reinsurance transaction to be legitimate, there must be a transfer of risk, which was lacking in the deal in question, prosecutors said.

"The evidence in this case will show the defendants knew this would be a no-risk deal for AIG," Patricco said.

Greenberg and the company later reported that the loss reserves had gone up.

"Plain and simple, ladies and gentlemen, the statements about AIG's loss reserves were lies," Patricco said.

In opening arguments, Patricco never mentioned billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who could play a role in the trial. Some of the executives say they believed Buffett was involved and supported the deal that led to the charges. Buffett leads Berkshire Hathaway.

But prosecutors say they only named Buffett, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing, as a potential witness to rebut any suggestion by the defense that he was involved in or approved the deal.

Michael Horowitz, Ferguson's attorney, said Monday that his client told Buffett and others about the requested transaction.

"Not a single red cent went into his pocket," Horowitz said.

The former General Re executives charged were Ferguson, chief executive officer from about 1987 through September 2001; Elizabeth Monrad, chief financial officer from June 2000 through July 2003; Robert Graham, a senior vice president and assistant general counsel from about 1986 through October 2005; and Garand, a senior vice president from 1994 until 2005.

Also charged was Christian Milton, AIG's vice president of reinsurance from about April 1982 until March 2005. Patricco said Monday that he lost $360,000 when the stock price dropped.

The defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

AIG filed a restatement in 2005 related to the transactions and agreed to pay a record $1.64 billion in a settlement with federal and New York authorities.

In 2005, two senior Gen Re executives, John Houldsworth and Richard Napier, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to falsify SEC filings in connection with the investigation and are awaiting sentencing.

If convicted of all the charges, Ferguson, Monrad, Milton and Graham each face up to 230 years in prison and a fine of up to $46 million. Garand faces up to 160 years in prison and a fine of up to $29.5 million.

The trial is expected to last about two months.

The indictment:

www.usdoj.gov/usao/ct/Documents/FERGUSON_SS_Indictment.pdf

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www.city-data.com/elec2/08/elec-HONOLULU-HI-08-part3.html

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July 8, 2004

Staffers: Voice of America
Independence in Peril

by Andrea Seabrook

Almost half of the employees of the government news service the Voice of America have petitioned Congress. They are protesting what they say are cuts in the amount and variety of VOA news programming, and pressure from the Bush administration to politicize and slant coverage in favor of U.S. policies. NPR's Andrea Seabrook reports....

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3205005

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November 25, 1996

KQED drops Mondavi project in underwriting controversy

Originally published in Current, Nov. 25, 1996

By Steve Behrens

KQED has dropped plans for a public TV documentary about pioneering Napa Valley winemaker Robert Mondavi after widespread newspaper reports that an organization funded largely by Mondavi had supplied the first and only seed money.

A week later, Nov. 22, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the donation by the Napa-based American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts resulted from direct discussions between KQED and the Mondavi winery's marketing department.

"Mondavi executives offered to provide full sponsorship, [KQED Vice President John] Boland said, but KQED guidelines did not permit that," the newspaper reported. "Instead, KQED turned to the American Center . . ." The winery also agreed to give the station leads to other potential donors.

The station pitched a positive profile. "We envision a program that conveys Mondavi's innovative spirit, determination and leadership, all of which have made him a symbol of the finest his industry embodies," gushed a KQED synopsis quoted by the Chronicle. Ricki Green, a freelance producer hired after the fundraising, told the newspaper she planned to do a balanced film "not free of criticism."

KQED Board member Sasha Futran, who raised the issue in September, had gotten access to KQED correspondence about the Mondavi project and sent copies to all 27 board members. "The Chronicle apparently got a hold of the documents," she said last week.

The station blamed the collapse of the Mondavi project on Futran, one of several on the board elected by KQED members from a slate backed by the watchdog Committee to Save KQED.

"Unfortunately, despite the fact that the total integrity of KQED's editorial control of the project has never been breached, the recent spate of unfair accusations and the resulting negative publicity has created a perception of loss of editorial control, making continuation of the project untenable," wrote Mary Bitterman, president of the San Francisco station, in a Nov. 15 letter to the funder, the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts. KQED said it would return the $50,000 seed money.

The flap occurs at a time when many public TV stations spend nearly all their regular budgets on routine operations and must raise outside money to make any sizable new programs. And the only funders for a program topic usually have at least a general interest in that topic. While KQED denies it, some San Franciscans say the interests of the Mondavi profile funder came too close to Mondavi himself.

"It's a matter of distance," said Futran. "It's pretty simple to me." She said KQED management is misleading the board and the public, and management returns the charge.

Futran said the documents contain "devastating" evidence that station reps talked with Mondavi's winery about funding the bio before the American Center agreed to pay $50,000 for R&D in August. The American Center, founded and initially funded by Mondavi, is developing a cultural center in the Napa Valley....

Futran objected to the Mondavi-related funding at the KQED Board's Sept. 26 meeting and the board referred the matter to its Media Policy Committee, which met Nov. 12. The committee found no violations of KQED or PBS guidelines, according to Boland.

Media critics Ben Bagdikian and Norman Solomon and journalist Peter Sussman spoke to the committee about conflicts of interest.

"The whole process was polluted," said Sussan, president of the local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists in the Chronicle.

"There's no gray area, it's so flagrant," said Solomon, a nationally syndicated columnist who has worked with FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), a progressive press watchdog group. "It's appalling that the project went as far as it did." ...

PBS distribution of the proposed program was "a bauble to dangle" in front of the wine executives, Solomon said. "For them, it's just another investment. They could kick in a couple hundred thousand and get a documentary fed on the PBS system. That's a pretty good investment."...

http://www.current.org/cm/cm622m.html

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Dr. Mary Bitterman is expected to testify regarding her business, financial, professional and personal relationships with Bank of Hawaii Corp, Lawrence Johnson, Gil Tam, Admiral Robert Kihune, Sandwich Isles Communications, Summit Communcations, Barack Obama, Mary Lou Woo, Steven Guttman, Aloha Airlines, AIG, Robin Campaniano, Wayne Metcalf, Judge Rey Graulty, Marsh & McLennan, Federal Insurance Company (Chubb Group), P&C Insurance Company, XL Insurance Company (Bermuda), PricewaterhouseCoopers, Hawaii Public Radio, Zephyr Insurance Company, Wayne Arakaki, Colbert Matsumoto, Island Insurance Co. Jerrold Chun, Linda Chu Takayama, Hawaiian Underwriters Insurance Co., Ltd., Hawaiian Insurance & Guaranty Co., Four Star Insurance Agency, Vesta Insurance Group, Robert Y. Huffman, George Ariyoshi, Pete Grimes, Neal Kunde, Cincinnati Insurance Company, Chubb Group, CIGNA Insurance Co., ACE Insurance Co., Investors Equity Life Insurance Co.;. Robert F. Clarke, Edwina Clarke, Hawaiian Electric Industries, Judith Neustadter Fuqua, John Waihee, Ben Cayetano, Linda Lingle, Robert Awana, First Insurance Company, Francis W. “Bill” Reimers, Plan Compliance Group, Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate, Dee Jay Mailer, Robert Libkuman, Francis Keala, Hawaiian Tel, Carlyle Group, P&C Insurance Company, Louanne Kam, Nathan Aipa, William S. Richardson, Rocco Sansone, Marsh & McLennan, Inc., Sumitomo, Earl Anzai, Lyn Anzai, Faye Kurren, Hawaii Dental Services, PGMA, Thomas Hayes, Reliance Insurance Co., Seibu Group, Robin Campaniano, AIG, Rey Graulty, Investors Equity Insurance Co., John McCain, Goldman Sachs, Terry Mullen, John Mullen Co., Robert Katz, Esq., C. Brewer & Co., Brewer Environmental Industries, Inc., Maui Land & Pineapple, Paul Alston, Apollo Advisors, Blackstone Group, Constance Lau, American Savings & Loan, Jeffrey N. Watanabe, Bert A. Kobayashi, Walter Dods, Jr., Royal & SunAlliance Insurance Co., Bill Mills, Judge Eden Elizabeth Hifo (fka Judge Bambi Weil), Peter Savio, Sue Savio, Rudy Savio, Pacific Asian Affairs Council (PAAC), Faye Kurren, Jean Rolles, Corbett Kalama, JAIMS, David C. Farmer, and others to be named upon discovery.