THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
OFFICE OF THE U.S. TRUSTEE
David C. Farmer, Successor Trustee
vs.
Bobby N. Harmon
(Formerly Mary Lou Woo vs. Harmon and James Nicholson vs. Harmon)
CV05-00030 DAE/KSC
United States District Court, District of Hawaii
Judges: David A. Ezra; Kevin S. Chang
~ ~ ~
DEFENDANT’S WITNESS
GOV. BENJAMIN CAYETANO
P.O. Box 161060
Honolulu, HI 96816
Website: http://bencayetano.com
Email: bjcayetano@aol.com
BENJAMIN J. CAYETANO was born and raised in the blue collar community of Kalihi in Honolulu, Hawaii. His parents divorced when he was six and his father, Bonifacio, an immigrant from the Philippines, raised him and his younger brother, Kenneth. Though poor, his early childhood was a comparatively happy one. Kalihi was a tough neighborhood, however, and as a juvenile, Ben survived several brushes with the law. A good student who earned good grades up to his sophomore year in high school, his junior and senior years, for a variety of reasons, were near disasters. Barely avoiding flunking out, he managed to graduate from Farrington High school in 1958.
Married at 18, he became a father at 19 and worked as a service station attendant, laborer, truck driver, electrician apprentice and draftsman to support his family. He realized quickly that his lack of a college education was a major obstacle to better opportunities. In 1963, he moved with his wife and two children to Los Angeles to pursue a college degree. The long ten hour flight to Los Angeles was the first time he had ever been off the island of Oahu or on an airplane.
In Los Angeles, he found a job as a draftsman and prepared for college. His poor high school grades required a stint through Los Angeles Harbor College where he worked hard to get his grades up before he was finally admitted to the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1966. Since his arrival in Los Angeles in 1963, he saw that the nation was experiencing tumultuous times: John F. Kennedy and subsequently Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. were assassinated, and the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War deeply divided and troubled the American people. With this dramatic backdrop, He was graduated from UCLA in 1968 and from Loyola University School of Law in 1971.
Recruited upon graduation by a highly regarded Hawaii law firm, he and his family returned to Hawaii where he was admitted to the Hawaii Bar and entered private practice as a trial attorney. In 1972, he was appointed by then Governor John A. Burns to the Hawaii Housing Authority, the state agency responsible for developing and managing public housing for low income people. This experience gave him an insight to the realities and potential for good in Hawaii politics. Shortly thereafter, he launched his political career.
In 1974, he won election to the Hawaii State Legislature. During two terms in the House of Representatives and two in the State Senate, he held several important posts including serving as chairman of the Senate Ways and Means and the Majority Policy committees, respectively. He was selected as one of the ten outstanding legislators by the Honolulu StarBulletin for four consecutive years and developed a reputation as an independent, honest and effective legislator.
In 1986, he was elected lieutenant governor. His accomplishments in that post included educational reform, the streamlining of election laws, and most significant, the conception and implementation of the A-Plus After-School Program. A Plus is the nation’s first state funded after-school program and has served as many as 29,000 public school elementary children annually. It consistently receives high approval ratings from parents for quality and effectiveness. In 1993, he was honored for these efforts by the UCLA Alumni Association and the University of Hawaii’s College of Education.
On November 8, 1994, Hawaii’s voters elected Benjamin J. Cayetano governor of the state, making him the first Filipino-American governor in United States history and the nation’s highest-ranking elected public official of Filipino heritage. Faced with the worse economic crisis in the state’s history, he organized a task force of business, labor and legislative leaders and developed an economic recovery plan. Confronted with a storm of criticism and opposition from factions opposed to his proposed reforms, Governor Cayetano nevertheless implemented civil service reform, reduced the size and growth of the state government to less than the rate of inflation, pushed through and implemented one of the biggest reduction of state taxes in the nation at the time, built a record number of public schools and homes for native Hawaiian homesteaders, constructed a new state convention center to boost tourism, a new state art museum and began construction of a new medical school-research center for the University of Hawaii.
He kept his promise to give education his highest priority by sparing the public schools from budget cuts at the expense of other state departments. He sought reform through the collective bargaining process and in 1997 negotiated a contract which increased teachers’ salaries in exchange for a seven day increase in the school year. In 2001, he withstood a three week statewide strike by public school teachers and university faculty, finally settling on contracts which provided affordable pay raises and focused on accountability and rewarding teachers for professional development rather than solely by seniority and which included merit pay for university faculty. True to his pledge to increase teachers’ salaries, Governor Cayetano boosted starting salaries for teachers from $25,000 in 1997 to $34,300 in 2002, a thirty-seven percent increase in just six years.
No stranger to making controversial decisions, Governor Cayetano ordered the State Attorney General to intervene on two issues of great significance to the people of Hawaii. The first was the investigation of the Bishop Estate. The Bishop Estate, an eleven billion dollar trust fund set up for the benefit and education of Hawaiian children had been plagued by misconduct by its trustees and had become highly politicized. The result was the establishment of reforms which changed the manner in which the estate was managed and depoliticized the way trustees were selected.
The Governor’s second major action was to order the Attorney General to oppose the buy-out of Hawaii’s second largest major daily newspaper, the Honolulu Starbulletin, by the larger Honolulu Advertiser. If successful, the buy-out would have left Hawaii with one single major daily newspaper. The buy-out was successfully stopped and Hawaii remains with two major daily newspapers today.
In 1999, Hawaii’s economy rebounded; 2000 saw expanded growth in new economic areas, further diversifying the economy. This economic recovery continued until, like the rest of the nation, it was derailed by the September 11th terrorist attacks. Unlike the rest of the nation, however, Hawaii rebounded much faster and by 2002, it was one of only two states which projected economic growth again. When Governor Cayetano’s second term expired on December 2, 2002, Hawaii’s economy was still growing, its unemployment rate stood at 4.2%, one of the lowest in the nation.
For his achievements in public office, Governor Cayetano received numerous honors and awards. In 1995, he received the UCLA Medal, the university’s highest honor, for his “remarkable record of public service”; The Distinguished Leadership Award from the UCLA John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management; and the Hawaii Chapter of the American Society of Public Administrations Award for Ethics In Government. In 1996, he received an award for leadership and contributions to government from the Harvard University Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations.
In 1997, he received an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of the Philippines. In 1998, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of public service from Loyola Marymount University and the UCLA Edward A. Dickson Alumnus of the Year Award for lifetime achievement. Finally, in 2002, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines conferred upon Governor Cayetano the Philippine Legion of Honor, that nation’s highest honor for distinguished achievements by civilians. He is a past chairman of the Western Governors’ Association.
Governor Benjamin J. Cayetano served in public office for twenty-eight consecutive years. Now retired from public service, he is engaged in private business, writing his memoirs and teaching at the University of Hawaii. His favorite past time is reading and he enjoys golfing, watching football and boxing. He and his wife and former First Lady, Vicky, have five children. They now reside in Waialae Iki, a suburb of Honolulu, with their youngest child, William, and their five dogs.
http://bencayetano.com/?page_id=3
~ ~ ~
528 U.S. 495 (2000), was a case filed in 1996 by Big Island rancher Harold "Freddy" Rice against the state of Hawaii and argued before the United States Supreme Court. In 2000 the court ruled that the state could not restrict eligibility to vote in elections for the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to persons of Native Hawaiian descent.
Rice was represented by attorney John Goemans, an active opponent of programs, public or private, that benefit Native Hawaiians preferentially. John Roberts (who would later become the Chief Justice of the United States) argued for Ben Cayetano, the governor of Hawaii at the time.
The February 2000 court ruling in Rice v. Cayetano encouraged Hawaiian sovereignty opponents to file a similar lawsuit, Arakaki v. State of Hawai‘i, months later. As the Rice case resulted in non-Hawaiians being allowed to vote in OHA elections, the Arakaki case resulted in non-Hawaiians being allowed to stand as candidates in OHA elections.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_v._Cayetano
* * * * *
“JOHN GOEMANS: CRUSADER FOR A COLOR-BLIND AMERICA”
~ o ~
No. 98-818
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
Petitioner
v.
BENJAMIN J. CAYETANO, GOVERNOR OF
THE STATE OF HAWAI'I
Respondent
BRIEF OF AMICI CURIAE
STATE COUNCIL OF HAWAIIAN HOMESTEAD
ASSOCIATION, HUI KAKO'O 'AINA
HO'OPULAPULA, KALAMA'ULA HOMESTEAD
ASSOCIATION AND HAWAIIAN HOMES
COMMISSION IN SUPPORT OF RESPONDENT
Filed July 28, 1999
- - - - -
CONCLUSION
Amici respectfully request that the decision of the court
of appeals be affirmed.
DATED: Honolulu, Hawai'i, July 28, 1999.
William M. Tam
Counsel for Amici Curiae
David M. Forman
Co-counsel for State Council of
Hawaiian Homestead Associations
and Hui Käko'o 'Äina
Ho 'opulapula
Karen M. Holt
Co-counsel for Kalama 'ula
Homestead Association
JOHN GOEMANS: CRUSADER FOR A COLOR-BLIND AMERICA
* * * * *
NEW DISCOVERY (07-01-10):
SCANDAL ISLAND: MAYOR JEREMY HARRIS
* * * * *
CV05-00030 - U.S. Dept of Justice, David C. Farmer, Trustee vs. Bobby N. Harmon - New Exhibit: "Cayetano makes life an open book..."
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 1:42 AM
From:
Bobby N. Harmon, CPCU
To:
"President Barack Obama" <president@whitehouse.gov>, "U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder" <AskDOJ@usdoj.gov>, "David Farmer" <farmerd001@hawaii.rr.com>, "Steven Guttman" <sguttman@kdubm.com>, "Carol K. Muranaka" <ustp.region15@usdoj.gov>, "Judge David A. Ezra" <theresa_lam@hid.uscourts.gov>, "Judge Kevin S.C. Chang" <shari_afuso@hid.uscourts.gov>, "Judge Barry M. Kurren" <tammy_kimura@hid.uscourts.gov>, "Securities & Exchange Commission Enforcement Division" <enforcement@sec.gov>, "U.S. Treasury Dept. Office of Inspector General" <hotline@oig.treas.gov>, "Office of Inspector General US Dept of Justice" <oig.hotline@usdoj.gov>, "Executive Office for U.S. Trustees" <ustrustee.program@usdoj.gov>, "Judge Robert Faris" <hib@hib.uscourts.gov>, "SEC Office of The Inspector General" <oig@sec.gov>, "Hawaii State Bar Association" <info@hsba.org>, "Charles Goodwin" <HONOLULU@FBI.GOV>, "Hugh Jones" <hugh.r.jones@hawaii.gov>, "Insurance Division Fraud Branch" <insfraud@dcca.hawaii.gov>, "Lawrence Reifurth" <dcca@dcca.hawaii.gov>, "Linda Lingle" <governor.lingle@hawaii.gov>, "Jo Ann Uchida" <rico@dcca.hawaii.gov>, "Office of Inspector General Civil Rights Complaints" <inspector.general@usdoj.gov>, "Mark Bennett" <hawaiiag@hawaii.gov>, "American Arbitration Association" <webcase@adr.org>, "Judith Neustadter" <Judy@tiki.net>
Cc:
"ACLU Hawaii" <office@acluhawaii.org>, "All Representatives" <reps@Capitol.hawaii.gov>, "All Senators" <sens@Capitol.hawaii.gov>, "Andrew Walden" <hfpeditor@email.com>, "Aon Insurance Managers" <mike_coulter@agl.aon.com>, "Arthur Rath" <imua@spamarrest.com>, "Benjamin Kudo" <bkudo@imanakakudo.com>, "Bradley Tamm" <btamm@hawaii.rr.com>, "Carl Morton" <ethics@hawaiiethics.org>, "Charles Hurd" <mcp@mediatehawaii.org>, "David Shapiro" <volcanicash@gmail.com>, "Dee Jay Mailer" <ksinfo@ksbe.edu>, "J C Shannon" <Hapa1234@aol.com>, "James B Nicholson" <jamesbnicholson@aol.com>, "James B. Farris" <Farrisj@adr.org>, "James Cribley" <jcribley@caselombardi.com>, "James Wriston" <jwriston@awlaw.com>, "Jeffrey Watanabe" <jwatanabe@wik.com>, "Jim Dooley" <jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com>, "Joe Moore" <news@khon2.com>, "John D. Finnegan" <info@chubb.com>, "John Goemans" <wip@kamuela.com>, "Judson Witham" <jurisnot2@yahoo.com>, "Ken Conklin" <ken_conklin@yahoo.com>, "Lyn Flanigan Anzai" <lflanigan@hsba.org>, "Margery Bronster" <info@bchlaw.net>, "Marsh Affinity Group" <prosecure@marshpm.com>, "Michael N. Tanoue" <mtanoue@paclawgroup.com>, "Michelle Tucker" <michelle@sterlingandtucker.com>, "Nathan Aipa" <nathan@pitluck.com>, "Paul Alston" <palston@ahfi.com>, "Randall Roth" <rroth@hawaii.edu>, "Rick Daysog" <rdaysog@honoluluadvertiser.com>, "Robert Bruce Graham" <bgraham@awlaw.com>, "Robin Campaniano" <aigh001@aighawaii.com>, "Samuel P. King" <leslie_sai@hid.uscourts.gov>, "William K Slate" <Websitemail@adr.org>, "Jim Terrack" <tnthawaii@aol.com>, "Don Michak" <dmichak@journalinquirer.com>, "Rocco Sansone" <rocco.c.sansone@marsh.com>, "Ted Pettit" <tpettit@caselombardi.com>, "Laura Thielen" <dlnr@hawaii.gov>, "Vaughn & Lynda Robinson" <ronpaulslcutah@yahoo.com>, "Rebecca Christie" <rchristie4@bloomberg.net>, "Catbird" <the-catbird@hotmail.com>, "James Duca" <jduca@kdubm.com>, "Ian Lind" <diary@ilind.net>, "Roy F. Hughes" <hthughes@hawaii.rr.com>, "Malia Zimmerman" <Malia@hawaiireporter.com>, "Jack Cashill" <JCashill@aol.com>, "Marshall Chriswell" <mc@whistleblowers.org>, "Laser Haas" <laserhaas@msn.com>, "Lucy Komisar" <lkomisar@msn.com>, "Democrats.com" <activist@democrats.com>, "Debra Sweet" <debrasweet@worldcantwait.org>, "Jane Kirtley" <kirt001@umn.edu>, "V K Durham" <vkdtdht@pionet.net>, "John Jubinsky" <Jube@tghawaii.com>, "Yamil Berard" <yberard@star-telegram.com>, "Global Exchange" <communications@globalexchange.org>, "William K. Black" <blackw@umkc.edu>, "Carole Williams" <cjwms@up.net>, "Susan Tius" <STius@rmhawaii.com>, "Human Rights in China" <hrichina@hrichina.org>, "Michelle Malkin" <writemalkin@gmail.com>, "Heather Vsn Doren" <heather.vandoran@yahoo.com>, "Phil J. Berg" <philjberg@obamacrimes.com>, "Amnesty International U.S.A." <aimember@aiusa.org>, "Michael Moore" <bailout@michaelmoore.com>, "California Anti-SLAPP Project" <info@casp.net>, "Thomas Fitton" <info@judicialwatch.org>, "Ron Branson" <VictoryUSA@jail4judges.org>, "ACLU of Kentucky" <info@aclu-ky.org>, "ACLU Online" <ACLUOnline@aclu.org>
February 15, 2009
Cayetano makes life
an open book
The former governor takes on everything from his family
to political cohorts in a just-published memoir
By Richard Borreca, Star-Bulletin
Ben Cayetano, Hawaii's fifth governor, has written a tell-all political memoir that details his time serving in the state Legislature and two terms as governor.
The 560-page softcover book describes Cayetano's tough Kalihi childhood and his mother's drug addiction, and recounts his own dealings with state politicians.
Cayetano goes into his relationship with politicians from U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono, who he did not support in her run for governor, to his own thoughts about his last campaign victory over now-Gov. Linda Lingle: "I felt like a damn pinata."
Cayetano, one of Hawaii's most controversial leaders, also talks about ethnic and racial relations in Hawaii and the problems native Hawaiians will have with plans for sovereignty.
Ben Cayetano, one of Hawaii's most controversial and complex politicians, has completed a no-holds barred memoir of his life, tracing his upbringing in Kalihi to his many successes in office.
Signed, sealed, delivered
Former Gov. Ben Cayetano's new autobiography, "Ben: A Memoir, from Street Kid to Governor," is available in local bookstores. The 560-page book is published by Watermark Publishing and sells for $19.95....
All profits from the book will go to a charitable foundation.
In the book, "Ben: A Memoir, From Street Kid to Governor," Cayetano opens up page after page of candid reflections on his life, his family and the politicians who served with him during his 28 years in the state Capitol.
Cayetano, 69, observes in the introduction: "There is much about ethnicity and race in this book. There is no getting around it. The remarkable evolution of Hawaii is all about ethnicity and race."
He goes on to say that whites or haoles "do not have a monopoly on racism."
"Locals understood that the Portuguese, who were never accepted as equals by the haoles, were wary of the Japanese and Chinese, who were in turn wary of the Filipinos, Hawaiians and everyone else.
"As history reveals, however, the use of power is fundamental to the haole culture. And during the times I write about, the haoles often did use power to keep other ethnic groups in line," Cayetano wrote.
The once-divorced Cayetano, who is now married to Vicky Cayetano, a successful private businesswoman, also examines his own family.
Cayetano reveals that the man who raised him was not his real father, that his mother suffered from a tragic drug addiction and that his brother, Ken, is gay.
"He (Cayetano's brother) lived a quiet life for more than four decades. He served his country in the Vietnam War, held a steady job, is law-abiding, votes and found a loving partner," Cayetano writes.
All of this, the former private attorney writes "profoundly affected my political positions on gay rights, drug addiction, latchkey children ... strengthening my belief that for too many of our citizens, their government is the last hope for improving the quality of their lives."
While Cayetano offers up an unblinking look at his own family, his descriptions and thoughts about fellow politicians are equally candid.
For instance, Cayetano reveals that he didn't support his lieutenant governor, Mazie Hirono, when she ran unsuccessfully for governor against Lingle in 2002.
Cayetano writes how he was hurt by Hirono, who in 2001 supported teachers on strike against the state.
"Her walking the picket line was about as appropriate as a backup quarterback cheering for the opposing team. There are many defining moments in every politician's career - her decision to walk the picket line was one of them," Cayetano said, noting that former Gov. George Ariyoshi told him that the move "won't help her; the old folks won't like it."
Cayetano said Ariyoshi was referring to older Japanese-American voters, for whom "loyalty is a very important virtue."
That split, Cayetano said, did not end his friendship with Hirono, but "it did affect my opinion on whether she would be the Democrats' best hope for governor in 2002."
In fact, Cayetano said he originally decided to support former Mayor Jeremy Harris, concluding that "Harris, not Hirono, was the Democratic Party's best hope."
When Harris withdrew, Cayetano said, he privately backed former congressman Ed Case, who at the time was a member of the state House.
Cayetano describes Case, who was born in Hawaii as "local but looks very haole," as courageous, independent and honest.
"As governor, I was obligated to stay neutral in the Democratic primary. It was no secret, however, that I was pulling for Case to win," Cayetano says.
Quotes from the book
» On former Speaker of the House Henry Peters: "Henry was born 200 years too late; he thinks he's King Kamehameha."
» After questioning the jurors in a murder trial that he had won, Cayetano was congratulated by one of the jurors: "As I extended my hand to shake hers, and before I could say anything, she said, 'Our father would have been proud.' I was speechless. 'My father is Jerry,' she said smiling. 'I'm Barbara, your half sister.'"
» About state Sen. Donna Mercado Kim: "Kim enjoyed playing the 'gotcha' game. Her good looks belied her pernicious nature."
» Thoughts on politics and former Mayor Jeremy Harris: "I didn't trust Harris; when it came to politics I believed him to be a person who would say or do anything to get his way - but I had supported him simply because I thought he could win. "Cynical pragmatism had overcome my idealism. It was time for me to get out of politics."
In an interview last week, Cayetano reflected on his autobiography. Always a constant reader, Cayetano had started a lending library for his staff while he was lieutenant governor, stocking a bookcase with nonfiction books he had recently finished.
"I read a lot," Cayetano said. "The only guy who reads more than me is (U.S. Rep.) Neil Abercrombie."
After reading both local and national autobiographies and memoirs, Cayetano said he could see that the temptation for self-censorship would result in a boring book.
After reading President Obama's "Dreams from My Father," Cayetano said, he felt that it was OK for a politician to lay everything out for public examination.
"If you are going to be candid, you have to explain why politicians did certain things," Cayetano said in an interview.
Cayetano, a skilled trial lawyer, also talks about the lawsuit filed regarding who could vote in Office of Hawaiian Affairs elections. As first envisioned, only native Hawaiians were allowed to vote for OHA trustees. The U.S. Supreme Court decision, Rice vs. Cayetano, changed that, ruling that all eligible voters in Hawaii could vote in OHA elections.
In his memoir, Cayetano says the ruling changed native Hawaiian relations and forestalls a nation as imagined by supporters of the federal native Hawaiian recognition bill in congress, the so-called Akaka Bill. Cayetano writes that many Hawaiians have "a recurring urge to restore the past, to embellish the images of the alii (royalty), to see history as they want to see it rather than as it was."
"It is critical for Hawaiians and non-Hawaiian leaders to develop a sense of the limitations of what state government can do to help Hawaiians - and of what they must do to help themselves," Cayetano writes....
http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20090215_Cayetano_makes_life_an_open_book.html
See also: http://www.kycbs.net/BEN.htm
* * * * *
GOOGLING FOR ...
GOVERNOR BEN CAYETANO + DAVID FARMER
BEN CAYETANO + KAMEHAMEHA + BOBBY HARMON
BEN CAYETANO + DAVID FARMER + BOBBY HARMON
* * * * *
August 27, 1997
Cayetano: Estate cannot hide
behind confidentiality
The estate's confidentiality provision
isn't meant to protect the
trustees, he says
By Mike Yuen and Jim Witty
Star-Bulletin
Gov. Ben Cayetano says the Bishop Estate cannot use confidentiality agreements to bar employees from cooperating with the state's investigation into whether trustees breached their fiduciary responsibilities.
Cayetano's remarks yesterday came an hour after a hearing in Circuit Court on the estate's emergency motion for a contempt finding against a fired executive for allegedly violating an injunction that prevented him from revealing "confidential" information about his former employer.
The hearing was recessed to Sept. 26.
Bobby Harmon, who was fired last year after working eight years as president and chief executive officer of the estate's for-profit subsidiary, P&C Insurance Co., was questioned last week by state attorneys.
They talked with Harmon after Cayetano ordered Attorney General Margery Bronster to begin an investigation into the the $10 billion charitable trust, the largest private landowner in Hawaii.
Estate attorneys are also alleging that Harmon talked with reporters, leaking sensitive information.
"The confidentiality provision, in my view as an attorney," said Cayetano, "will not hold any weight or water if the information that's coming out is used to demonstrate or prove that there has been in fact a breach of fiduciary duty. You cannot hide information. The confidentiality provision should stand only if it is in fact protecting the trust and the beneficiaries - and not the trustees."
Moreover, the law giving the attorney general subpoena powers outweighs any confidentiality provision an employer may have with employees, Cayetano added.
"I think if it should then happen that people bring a civil action against this employee for damages for breach of contract, the defense is he was required to do so by law," Cayetano said.
Several hours after Cayetano spoke with reporters, Harmon's attorney, John Goemans, filed a writ with the state Supreme Court, challenging Circuit Judge Bambi Weil's jurisdiction to enforce the injunction against his client.
The injunction, Goemans claims, denies Harmon's "established First Amendment right to express his opinion as to the corruption and criminality of the officers and directors of the Bishop Estate in matters of public concern and in aid of law enforcement by the attorney general of the state of Hawaii and others."
Bishop Estate spokeswoman Elisa Yadao said the estate intends to cooperate with the attorney general's investigation, but insisted that the inquiry should not be tied to Harmon's case.
"It is not appropriate to discuss that case. That's separate from the attorney general's inquiry," Yadao said. "He is under injunction from the court because of his unauthorized removal of estate property."
Yadao expressed surprise that state investigators have not yet contacted estate officials, given that two weeks have passed since Cayetano announced Bronster's inquiry.
As a result, estate attorney Nathan Aipa has called Bronster's office, asking how to proceed, said Yadao.
Asked if estate employees and staff at its educational arm, Kamehameha Schools, will be allowed to talk to state investigators without being held to the confidentiality provision, Yadao declined to answer the question directly.
She would only say: "We have a long history of working with court-appointed masters. We've always cooperated fully with the masters. We have a good working relationship with the current master, who has spoken with current employees."
Bronster has said she won't talk to estate trustees or attorneys until she fully sorts out the allegations.
The Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate employee handbook, a copy of which was obtained by the Star-Bulletin, tells employees they must "keep institutional information confidential unless there are good reasons and authorization for its release."
They are also told the release of information pertaining to the estate and the schools is handled through the trust's public relations department, which must also clear any speeches or interviews "which might contain sensitive and/or confidential information."
The employee handbook itself is labeled "CONFIDENTIAL."
Cayetano said that during a talk with Bronster on Monday, there was concern expressed over "the resources" needed for the investigation, given the state's tight fiscal situation.
"What we talked about was using some personnel from the state's Tax Department, for example. Certainly in her investigation she will need to have people with accounting and auditing backgrounds," Cayetano said.
"My inclination," Cayetano said, "is to make the (preliminary) report public, because I think it will become public anyway if we do go to court."
Cayetano stressed that Bronster is focusing on what might appear to be clear violations of fiduciary duties.
Trustees have said the preliminary report should not be released until they can meet with Bronster to respond to allegations.
Cayetano added that while Bronster can subpoena Bishop Estate trustees and even state Supreme Court justices, who appoint the trustees, he believes they will come forward voluntarily.
http://archives.starbulletin.com/1997/08/27/news/story1.html
~ ~ ~
May 26, 2009
Dear President Obama, Attorney General Holder, Trustee Farmer, Mr. Guttman, Ms. Neustadter, and All Concerned:
Due to the discovery of NEW FACTS, I am adding the subject Exhibit as it relates to this lawsuit which violates my Constitutional Rights of Free Speech and a Fair Trial, and Federal and Hawaii Anti-SLAPP statutes.
In view of all the factual evidence that I have presented in this and hundreds of other Exhibits and witness descriptions, it is beyond comprehension that former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; Assistant U.S. Trustees Curtis Ching, Gayle Lau and Carol Muranaka; Judges Eden Hifo (fka Bambi Weil), Kevin Chang, David Ezra, Barry Kurren, Lloyd King and Robert Faris; Trustees Mary Lou Woo, James Nicholson and David C. Farmer; American Arbitration Association arbitrator Judith Neustadter Fuqua, attorney Steven Guttman, and others, can still claim that they were non-conflicted, fair, impartial, and unbiased in this case.
Mr. Farmer and Mr. Guttman, in spite of all this factual evidence (not just "political opinions" or "conspiracy theories" as you have previously alleged), I am again asking that we attempt to reach a global settlement of this matter through confidential negotiation or mediation rather than continuing these costly and seemingly-endless court proceedings.
However, if you, and your insurance carriers, are still not willing to attempt to negotiate or mediate a settlement, then I ask that you perform your mandated review of this new Exhibit in accordance with Judge Ezra's Order, and advise me if you find it contains any so-called "protected subject matter", and whether or not you intend to OBJECT to my filing a Motion to reopen this case.
I respectfully request your immediate reply. If I do not receive a response from you or your insurance carrier within 15 days, I will assume that you have found no "PSM" in these updated pages, and that you will NOT file any objections to my Motion.
Very truly yours,
Bobby N. Harmon, CPCU, ARM
Additional References:
http://www.kycbs.net/Confessions.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Freedom-To-Sing.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/JUSTICE.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Whistler.htm
http://whistlersongs.blogspot.com
http://www.zoominfo.com/Search/ReferencesView.aspx?PersonID=912950374
~ ~ ~
NEW DISCOVERY (05-01-09): More undisclosed conflicts of interest between AAA Arbitrator Judith Neustadter Fuqua and Governor Ben Cayetano:
http://www.becketfund.org/litigate/HOKComplaint.pdf
~ ~ ~
NEW DISCOVERY (04-26-09): More undisclosed conflicts of interest between David Farmer, Warren Price, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sharon Himeno, Ben Cayetano, John Waihee, Renton Nip, etc.
Ex-Justice
Nakamura dies
He was a guiding force in Hawaii's
Democratic revolution of the 1950s
By Mike Yuen, Star-Bulletin
Former labor attorney and state Supreme Court Justice Edward Nakamura, widely regarded as a man of integrity unafraid to criticize abuses of power, died early yesterday at Queen's Hospital after undergoing open heart surgery.
Nakamura, 74, had suffered a heart attack Saturday, said his wife, Martha Nakamura.
Even after retirement in 1989 after nearly 10 years as an associate justice, Nakamura remained an influential figure. He played a key behind-the-scenes role in the crafting of the Aug. 9 "Broken Trust" opinion piece in the Star-Bulletin that spurred Gov. Ben Cayetano to order an investigation of the $10 billion Bishop Estate, one of the nation's largest charitable trusts.
"It was only after three meetings with Ed over pancakes at the Like Like Drive Inn that I started to see 'the whole picture,'" said University of Hawaii law Professor Randall Roth, one of the five authors of the essay. "Without his guidance, the project might never have gotten off the ground."
He provided needed insight
Nakamura provided insight into how things worked. "It was an insider's look at the Democratic power structure," Roth said. "He was fed up with the way things have evolved. He felt some people in recent years betrayed what the ideals of the Democratic revolution (of the 1950s) were all about. They were watching out for themselves rather than the ideals of their predecessors."
Roth added: "In his quiet but firm way, Ed always followed his conscience, even when that was certain to displease powerful people."
In 1993, Nakamura opposed then-Gov. John Waihee's nomination of attorney Sharon Himeno to the state Supreme Court, which drew fire because of her political connections and because her law firm represented her father, developer Stanley Himeno, in a questionable business deal involving the state pension fund.
Nakamura advised attorneys who publicly opposed Himeno's nomination, which was rejected by the Senate.
Resigned from board
That same year, Nakamura testified in the Senate's special investigation into the management of the state pension fund. He said that during his tenure as a fund trustee, a golf course deal was pushed by the then-chairman of the Employees' Retirement System, Gordon Uyeda, that would have provided a financial windfall for Uyeda's friend, developer Rodney Inaba.
When the pension board voted to purchase the Wood Ranch Golf Club in Simi Valley, Calif., Nakamura resigned in protest.
But the $31 million deal quickly unraveled with Waihee apparently playing a role in getting trustees to abandon the project.
A self-described liberal
Nakamura was born in Honolulu on Oct. 9, 1922, the son of immigrant laborers. A self-described liberal, he was one of the many Japanese-American veterans of World War II who went to college on the GI bill and joined the Democratic Party, helping it transform Hawaii into a society that offered more educational and employment opportunities for non-Caucasians.
Although he considered himself simply a "foot soldier" in the campaigns of John Burns, who would eventually become governor, many considered Nakamura to be a key architect of the Democratic revolution.
After graduating from the University of Chicago law school in 1951, in the same class with U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink, Nakamura joined Bouslog & Symonds, then the only labor law firm in Hawaii at a time when lawyers were fearful of representing workers. It was when McCarthyism fanned congressional investigations into organized labor in search of "subversive activities."
He was 'model attorney'
Martha Nakamura remembers that when her husband, who also served as a University of Hawaii regent, was asked to describe himself, "He always said he was a labor lawyer for 28 years. He always said that first."
Attorney Jared Jossem, former state Republican Party chairman who was Nakamura's legal adversary in about 50 cases, said: "He was a model attorney who represented his clients effectively and brilliantly.
"In developing proposals to legally change labor-management relations, he quietly worked the political side to get his clients' and his vision into legislation. He combined intellectual power with inordinate political skills."
Centrist view as justice
When Nakamura joined the high court, there were fears that he would be one-sided since he was a labor attorney with no prior experience on the bench. But that did not happen.
"As a justice, he adopted a more centrist view balancing the specific interests of unions and employers," Jossem said.
One of the high court's key decisions authored by Nakamura declared that an employer's written handbooks and policies can be considered binding contracts under certain circumstances. That protects workers not covered by collective-bargaining agreements or employment contracts.
Retired state appellate Judge Walter Heen, another co-author of the "Broken Trust" opinion piece, said: "Justice Nakamura will stand out in the history of Hawaii as one of its finest legal minds and one who possessed the highest concern for principle. His opinions reflect both those characteristics."
Retired Hawaii Supreme Court Chief Justice William Richardson, who served with Nakamura, all of the current justices, U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, who served with Nakamura in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Gov. Ben Cayetano and attorney James King, Nakamura's former law partner, all praised Nakamura for his honesty, integrity and wisdom.
A mentor to many
Scores of legal professionals as old as the 69-year-old Heen and as young as 33-year-old state Rep. Scott Saiki (D, Moiliili) claim Nakamura as their mentor.
"I think he had so much integrity and wisdom, and he led by example," said Saiki.
Nakamura's nephew, attorney James Kawashima, 31, added: "He was very principled and always ethical. Sometimes that's rare in people and lawyers both."...
http://archives.starbulletin.com/97/09/12/news/story3.html
~ ~ ~
March 17, 2009
by Rick Daysog
Trustees of the Kamehameha Schools received much deserved applause last month when they rejected a court-approved pay increase plan and instead took a 10 percent pay cut.
After all, it's the prudent thing to do in face of the trust’s weakened financial condition, members of the Kamehameha Schools ohana have said.
But others, including former Gov. Ben Cayetano believe the way trustee pay is set is still out of whack and opens the trust to the type of abuses that haunted the estate during the late 1990s.
Previously, trustee pay was based on a formula set by law which entitled them to up to 2 percent of the estate’s annual gross. That resulted in $1 million-a-year trustee pay checks that nearly got the trust's tax-exempt status revoked by the Internal Revenue Service.
Now, trustee pay is supposed to be set at reasonable levels. Every several years, a Probate Court-appointed panel is supposed to come up with recommendations on what those reasonable levels are.
In 2004, the panel approved raising trustees maximum pay by more than 69 percent, generating much criticism among the schools’ ohana and the state Attorney General.
Probate Judge Colleen Hirai approved that increase but trustees turned it down.
Last year, the panel approved a similar plan before trustees decided to take their pay cut. The increase was again opposed by some members of the Kamehameha ohana as well as by the Attorney General’s office.
According to Cayetano, the lack of a more permanent trustee compensation schedule exposes the trust to future controversies.
In the past, the lucrative trustee compensation served as the “root cause for the ethical and political problems” that plagued the estate during the 1980s and 1990s, Cayetano wrote in his recently published memoir “Ben.”
It not only led to corrupted trust but it also tarnished the state Legislature and the state judiciary.
No doubt, the ethical characters of current Trustees Nainoa Thompson, Douglas Ing, Robert Kihune, Diane Plotts and Corbett Kalama are unquestioned. All are dedicated to the trust’s mission of educating native Hawaiian children.
But in approving steep pay raises for the trustees, Cayetano see a potential for history repeating itself:
“One could only wonder whether the panel, the probate judge and the new trustees had learned any lessons from the Bishop Estate controversy,” he wrote.
“The failure of the new trustees to ‘clean house’ left me wondering whether the problems that vexed the old trustees and the Bishop Estate would emerge again one day when the passing of time had blurred the reasons the reforms were made in the first place.”
Tags: Ben Cayetano, Kamehameha Schools, Trustee pay
* * * * *
NEW DISCOVERY (11-30-08):
THE BEST GOVERNMENT MONEY CAN BUY
* * * * *
NEW DISCOVERY (08-25-08): More undisclosed conflicts of interests between David Farmer, Steven Guttman, Governor Ben Cayetano, Governor John Waihee, Governor Linda Lingle, Goldman Sachs, Kamehameha Schools, Hamilton McCubbin, Dee Jay Mailer, P&C Insurance Co., Wally Chin, Rodney Park, Nathan Aipa, Colleen Wong, Lyn Anzai, Earl Anzai, Hawaiian Airlines, Aloha Airlines, Judge Lloyd King, Judge Robert Faris, Judge Kevin Chang, Judge Barry Kurren, Judge David Ezra, Judge Rey Graulty, Robin Campaniano, AIG, Douglas Ing, Louise Ing, Colbert Matsumoto, Jeff Watanabe, Joshua Gotbaum, Linda Lingle, AIPAC, Louanne Kam, Allan Yee, Dennis Fern, James Ahloy, Aloha Petroleum/Harken Energy, McKenzie Methane, Arthur Andersen, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Dennis Tsuhako, Enron, Alan M.L. Yee, Constance Lau, Eric Yeaman, Hawaiian Electric, Robert Clarke, Edwina Clarke, Peter Hanashiro, University of Hawaii, etc:
February, 2007
How to Save Your Business,
Your People & Yourself
Ross Murakami and KMH rise out
of the ashes of Arthur Andersen
David K. Choo, Hawaii Business
Ross Murakami first heard about the Arthur Andersen accounting scandal in November 2001 from an unexpected but reliable source: his mom. Mrs. Margie Kanemitsu called her accountant son from her home in Hilo, after watching a CNN broadcast.
“Ross, did you hear what happened to one of your clients, Enron?” she asked.
The younger Murakami was a partner at Arthur Andersen’s thriving 42-person Honolulu office. The large international accounting firm served as the financial auditor of Enron, a giant energy trading company based in Houston. That morning, Arthur Andersen had announced a restatement of an earlier audit of its client.
“Don’t worry, Mom. We’ll be fine,” he said.
Mothers can be like that. Worry, worry, worry. But, then again, you know what they say about a mother knowing best.
Within days, through a seemingly never-ending series of news reports, Murakami, his staff and the rest of the country watched Enron implode, sucking its staff, subsidiaries and investors down an irresistible vortex. Curiously, one of the first down the financial and political black hole was the auditor, 88-year-old Arthur Andersen, not only its Houston office, but nearly everyone else, including the people in far-off Honolulu....
“It was emotional. It was exhausting,” says Murakami of his office’s sudden fall and eventual rise. “It was also extremely rewarding.”...
THE YOUNG PARTNER
The year 2001 was promising to be a good one for Murakami. Hawaii’s economy was continuing its steady recovery from a decade-long slowdown, which meant a busy year for service businesses like accounting firms. In addition, in the fall, the then-37-year-old accountant made partner at Arthur Andersen. Having joined the company 14 years before, straight out of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Murakami was the first partner in the Honolulu office to have begun his career at the Honolulu office.
Murakami started his new position at Arthur Andersen on Sept. 1st.
“Here I am a new partner, and, 10 days later, we are hit by one of the most tragic events in U.S. history, which, among other things, had a big impact on business in general,” says Murakami. “Then, two months after that, Enron. Kaboom!”...
Even though his once promising year was beginning to look nightmarish, when Murakami put down the phone after speaking with his mother on that November morning, he was confident that the scandal would pass. After all, every one of the big five accounting firms had had a questionable audit at one time or another in their histories. Some of them had even been sanctioned by the Securities and Exchange Commission for their indiscretions. But they all had weathered their respective storms. It seemed highly unlikely to Murakami that the actions of a few people in his company’s Houston office could reverberate all the way to Honolulu.
Around the office, he reassured his staff: This, too, shall pass. Corporate was tight-lipped about the growing scandal, preferring to wait for the legal and political dust to settle. Murakami and Honolulu office managing partner Randy Karns met with their local public relations consultant, who advised that they do the same. People wouldn’t appreciate public protests or protestations of innocence, they were told. Especially if they were protesting their own innocence. It would be bad form, especially in Hawaii.
Corporate sent representatives to reassure the Honolulu staff that the accounting irregularities were part of an isolated situation in Houston. They pointed to the firm’s vast capital base. Again, there was nothing to be alarmed about.
However, in the first quarter of 2002, as news reports announced one legal development (and lost client) after another, tensions were running high in the office. To relieve the anxiety, Murakami and his staff scheduled visits to members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation and met with Gov. Ben Cayetano. The sessions were gut-wrenching and emotional. “How could this be happening to us?” “Why was Arthur Andersen being made a scapegoat?” they asked. “We haven’t done anything wrong,” they insisted.
The leaders listened patiently and offered their sympathies and support.
“We knew they [Hawaii’s congressional delegation and the governor] wouldn’t be able to do much for us. How could they? It would be like stepping in front of a speeding truck,” says Murakami. “But we needed an outlet for all the anxiety, anger and emotion. We needed to vent.”
In Arthur Andersen’s 29th-floor office in the Pacific Guardian Life Center, the staff continued to vent with management’s full support and participation. Someone began writing encouraging messages with a Magic Marker on a Plexiglas wall off the reception area. People began writing words of support, inspirational quotes from leaders like Gandhi, or words of anger and defiance. They even had lighthearted activities in which they took out their frustrations on certain Department of Justice officials.
“You had this pride about working for Arthur Andersen and then there was this outrage that all this was going down and no one could do anything about it,” says Harvey Rackmil, chief financial officer for HONBLUE, who was the senior member of Arthur Andersen’s tax department from 1998 to 2002. “We were outraged at the government. We made ‘I am Arthur Andersen’ T-shirts for ourselves, and we went downstairs and took photos of each other. Arthur Andersen for the longest time didn’t fight back. They thought that we would get through it. Then the indictment was handed down and that was that.”
THE OLD PARTNER
In the fall of 2001, Randy Karns was quietly planning a second career away from public accounting. The 50-something Karns, who had opened Arthur Andersen’s Honolulu office nearly 20 years before, had been offered an early retirement package from the corporate office—mandatory retirement, actually. That was fine, because he had recently been offered his dream job. Today, Karns won’t disclose what the dream position was, or with whom. He does say that it was with an organization for which he had a passion, and that the position was both prestigious and lucrative.
Karns, who had conducted audits of Hawaii companies since the late ’60s, had spent his entire career with Arthur Andersen, starting out in the firm’s Los Angeles office. He was extremely proud of his company and the quality of work it had done, so 2002, had promised to be not only a sweet beginning to a new career, but a sweet ending, as well. However, as the feeding frenzy around the accounting scandal grew, the senior partner knew that his work at Arthur Andersen wasn’t done. He asked his potential new employers if he could have a little more time to decide about the position. They agreed....
On March 14, 2002, a federal grand jury in Houston indicted Arthur Andersen on one count of obstructing a Department of Justice investigation by destroying documents. After the announcement, Karns and his management team kicked things into high gear, calling an office-wide meeting in which Karns laid all the options on the table, including his recent job offer. No one was going to abandon ship, he assured his staff.
Subsequent informational meetings, held in a common area, spilled out into the halls. The meetings were held every two weeks, then weekly. Sometimes there was an agenda, like when Karns outlined what had happened with Enron. Sometimes it was just to talk story.
“We had meetings whether we had something to say or not. You would be surprised. You always have something to talk about,” says Karns. “Our staff wanted to know if Ross and I had heard anything, and if we hadn’t, did that change our thinking, if that makes sense. Even knowing that there is nothing new can be comforting.”
“Randy was a great leader,” says Rackmil. “He was the guy delivering the message, fireside-chat style. You knew he was going to do everything in his power to help. He had been here a long time and had a lot of loyalty in the community. As long as the clients stayed, we would be OK.”
All along Karns offered his options analysis and assessment without interjecting a prejudgment one way or another. This was a decision for the employees, not him. He was still considering his dream job.
Then, one day, he accidentally walked in on a small group of staff who were working on a gift of gratitude to the senior partner. Karns realized that he already had his dream job.
“I came home and told my wife that we were going forward. That [other] job would have been a lot of fun to do. But it [his decision] really wasn’t about money or prestige,” says Karns. “They felt so strongly about the firm, its mission, its clients and its people. They were doing all of this on top of dealing with all the stress of getting their jobs done. I felt privileged to be a part of them.”
THE NEW PLAN
Of course, Murakami’s mother wasn’t the only one outside the firm who called him about Enron and the future of Arthur Andersen. “I started fielding calls from clients, who would say: ‘Eh, Ross, how come you didn’t let me do all those things?’ I told them that I didn’t know why they did that,” says Murakami. “I told them we don’t do that. That’s not how business is done. We had a very solid client base. They knew us, and they knew we had always been very honest and open with them.”
Early in the crisis, Murakami and Karns hit Bishop Street hard, meeting with as many of their clients as they could. Sometimes, as at the gatherings with their staff, the two partners had little new information to impart to their anxious clients. There were a lot of uncomfortable discussions, some in front of boards of directors. But every client was contacted and spoken to face to face if possible. After Andersen’s indictment in March, the meetings got more urgent, going from heart-felt reassurances to the beginnings of a plan for a new firm.
“We kept them [our clients] informed and we told them that we were trying to pull something off that would be a stand-alone entity,” says Murakami. “We said we couldn’t tell them right now if it was going to be successful or not. We couldn’t wait till we were solid to let them know. It wasn’t about us. It was about them.”
At first glance, the partners’ plan, which they would appropriately name “Project Phoenix,” seemed simple. They, along with Peter Hanashiro, who was slated to be named partner at Arthur Andersen before the crisis, would buy the firm from corporate. They would continue to provide the same good service that they always had, except the new firm would no longer audit large publicly traded companies. But the new firm would be free from a rigid corporate fee structure and nimble enough to respond to changes in the local marketplace....
FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX
Murakami made that August’s payroll, and has made every one since. But KMH has done more than just deliver paychecks on time. According to Murakami, the firm’s revenues have doubled since he switched off the lights on Arthur Andersen, with 20 percent growth for four years in a row. The staff has also doubled, growing from 42 to 85 in late 2006.
Throughout the ordeal, KMH lost only two or three tax clients and a handful of national and international clients, several of whom later rehired the firm in other capacities. KMH’s vision of a locally owned firm with a local focus along with national expertise has taken hold. Coincidently, it was also one that had been floating around in the heads of many experienced accountants in town.
“Even before Andersen imploded, we had discussed the possibility of creating a local firm with national ties. That is the way the market is moving,” says Wilcox Choy, partner at KMH and former partner at big four accounting firm, Grant Thornton. “But there just wasn’t enough critical mass to do that. Then Andersen went down and after talking with them, we realized we were on the same page.”
KMH started with three partners (Karns, Murakami and Hanashiro) and now has six. Alan Yee joined the firm from Grant Thornton’s Honolulu office in 2002 and Al Fernandez from Ernst and Young in 2003. Both run KMH’s tax practices. Alton Ohira, former head of KPMG Honolulu’s insurance and audit practice, came on board in 2003 and Wilcox Choy, once in charge of Thornton’s audit practice, also in 2003....
~ ~ ~
Timeline: The Fall of Arthur Andersen
Aug. 15, 2001
Enron vice president for corporate development Sherron Watkins writes a seven-page
letter to her boss, CEO Kenneth Lay, warning of accounting irregularities at the oil and
natural gas trader. “The business world will consider the past successes as nothing but
an elaborate accounting hoax,” she writes.
Nov. 8, 2001
Enron revises its financial statements for the previous five years. Instead of showing
huge profits, the company now says that it actually lost $586 million.
Jan. 10, 2002
Arthur Andersen acknowledges that it destroyed Enron documents.
Jan. 15, 2002
Arthur Andersen fires chief Enron auditor David B. Duncan.
March 15, 2002
Arthur Andersen is indicted by a federal grand jury in Houston on one count of
obstruction of justice for shredding documents and deleting computer files regarding
Enron.
March 26, 2002
Arthur Andersen CEO Joseph F. Berardino steps down amid an exodus of clients and
overseas partners.
June 15, 2002
After a six-week trial, Arthur Andersen is convicted of obstruction of justice for
destroying documents while on notice of a federal investigation.
May 31, 2005
The U.S. Supreme Court overturns the Arthur Andersen conviction. The justices
unanimously agree that the Houston jury was given overly broad instructions by the
federal judge presiding over the case. At issue is a memo from an Arthur Andersen in-house attorney detailing the company’s document retention policy.
Nov. 23, 2005
The Justice Department announces that it will not pursue the criminal case against
Arthur Andersen in wake of the Supreme Court decision handed down earlier that year.
BALANCING THE BOOKS
On Monday, Oct. 16, 2006, the day after Hawaii’s statewide earthquake, accounting firm Accuity LLP opened for business. Just days before, the firm had served as the Honolulu office of accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), which had decided earlier that year to pull out of the Hawaii market.
“I got a call from a friend that first day, who said: ‘PWC pulls out and the earth shakes,’” says Kent Tsukamoto, the former PWC managing partner and now Accuity’s managing partner. “You might say that we started off with a bang.”
While the circumstances surrounding Accuity’s transition from international juggernaut to locally owned big business weren’t as catastrophic as Arthur Andersen’s end and KMH’s beginning, Tsukamoto and his partners, Wendell Lee and Dennis Tsuhako, were essentially dealing with the same issue: How do you sustain a business while building another business?
However, a larger, more earth-shaking issue probably extends far beyond Accuity, KMH and the rest of the Islands’ accounting industry: How important is Hawaii to businesses with a global, or national reach? The answer is: maybe not much anymore.
According to Accuity’s tax partner, Wendell Lee, PWC’s decision to leave Hawaii and pursue larger markets on the Mainland was initially shocking, but not surprising in the end. “PWC has more than 15,000 clients in the U.S. Only about 200 of them account for 80 percent of the company’s revenue. On average, that’s about $54 million to $100 million per client, per year,” says Lee. “That leaves the Hawaii market off the scale, because, at the very bottom of the food chain, they were looking for at least $1.5 million in revenue per client. At PWC, our largest Hawaii client provided about $1 million.”
With PWC’s exit and Arthur Andersen’s demise in 2002, Hawaii is home to three of the big-four accounting firms. Tsukamoto believes that number may shrink over the next several years.
“The size of a public accounting firm is a function of the size of the services rendered. Accounting follows the organizations,” says Warren Wee, associate professor of accounting at Hawaii Pacific University. “Just look at the corporations that were based in Hawaii 10 or 20 years ago. It’s not rocket science to see what’s happening, really basic economics.”
“Ten or 15 years ago, you saw a lot of mergers of the large, national firms, going from the big eight to the big five. Now, of course, after Andersen’s implosion, it’s down to four,” adds Wilcox Choy, partner at KMH and former partner at big-four accounting firm Grant Thornton. “Everything’s bigger and bigger businesses need bigger profits.”
In other words, follow the money, and while the big money is on the Mainland, there is still more than enough business to be found in the Islands. Accuity has retained a vast majority of its staff and about 95 percent of its revenue since leaving PWC. Tsukamoto expects about 5 percent growth in 2007.
Local ownership has a plethora of benefits. Now, Accuity is no longer saddled with post-Enron, corporate office-imposed procedures, which had very little relevance to Hawaii’s small-scale businesses. (According to Tsukamoto, about 60 percent of Accuity’s clients are family-owned businesses.) Also gone is the constant pressure from the head office to increase fees by 20 percent to 30 percent, rates more in line with those charged in New York and Los Angeles. In addition, when Tsukamoto needs to make a decision, he just walks down the hall to talk with his partners.
Some of the advantages of local ownership can’t be accounted for on a balance sheet: “PWC offered us [the partners] positions on the Mainland, where we would have done well,” says Lee. “But that wouldn’t have been the right thing to do. We have 80 people who are our family, who in turn have families that they have to take care of. We couldn’t abandon them in the market like that. This is Hawaii. This is what you do. You take care.” — DKC
How to Save Your Business Your People & Yourself ...
Arthur Anderson and The Phoenix Project
~ ~ ~
NEW DISCOVERY (08-15-08): Undisclosed conflicts of interests between Dan Inouye, Ted Stevens, VECO Corporation, George W. Bush, John McCain, Dick Cheney, Halliburton, Shell Oil, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, John Waihee, Ben Cayetano, Bishop Estate, Aloha Petroleum, James Ahloy, Chevron-Texaco, Mark Bennett, Linda Lingle, Tesoro Petroleum, Faye Kurren, Judge Barry Kurren, Enron, Goldman Sachs, Robert Rubin, Henry Paulson, Henry Peters, Paul Alston, etc.:
December 6, 1996
ENRON and Shell Win Bid in
Capitalization of YPFB's
Transportation Segment
LA PAZ, BOLIVIA – Enron Development Corp. and Shell International Gas Ltd. announced today that the government of Bolivia has named the companies the successful capitalizing company for the transportation segment of the state oil and gas company, Yacimientos Petroliferos...
Business Wire
~ ~ ~
March 30, 1998
The following is an excerpt from a 10-K SEC Filing, filed by TESORO PETROLEUM CORP on 3/30/1998:
ACCESS TO NEW MARKETS
A lack of market access has constrained natural gas production in Bolivia. With little internal gas demand, all of the Company's Bolivian natural gas production is sold under contract to the Bolivian government for export to Argentina.
Major developments in South America indicate that new markets will open for the Company's production. Construction of a new 1,900-mile pipeline that will link Bolivia's extensive gas reserves with markets in Brazil commenced in 1997 and is expected to be operational in early 1999.
The owners of the new pipeline include Petrobras (the Brazilian state oil company), other Brazilian investors, Enron Corp., Shell International Gas Ltd., British Gas PLC, El Paso Energy Corp., BHP, and Bolivian pension funds. When completed, the new pipeline will have a capacity of approximately 1 billion cubic feet ("Bcf") per day.
For more, see...
Citigroup: Vampires in the City
Vultures Up to their Necks in Tesoro Petroleum
~ ~ ~
NEW DISCOVERY (07-12-08):
~ ~ ~
NEW DISCOVERY (08/14/08): David Farmer’s undisclosed relationships with Marsh & McLennan; Mercer Consulting Services; Aloha Airlines; Hawaiian Airlines; Earl Anzai; Lyn Anzai; Joshua Gotbaum; AIPAC; Ben Cayetano; Linda Lingle; others:
March 17, 2002
Dead air deal rankles Aloha
By Susan Hooper, Honolulu Advertiser
The proposed merger between the state's two local airlines foundered because Hawaiian Airlines wanted to change the terms of the agreement, including eliminating the Houston consulting firm coordinating the deal, the chief executive of Aloha Airlines said in a statement today.
Hawaiian's proposal also would have given Hawaiian chairman John Adams the top spots in the merged airline, eliminating Greg Brenneman, the TurnWorks executive who had been orchestrating the merger, according to Glenn Zander, Aloha's president and chief executive officer.
"Aloha could not accept Hawaiian's new proposal because in our judgment, it was not in the best interest of the state, the traveling public or Aloha's shareholders and employees," Zander said.
The details emerged a day after Hawaiian said it was pulling out of the deal because it did not wish to extend what it called an April 18 "outside date for completing the merger." It said increasing costs and risks of the deal were factors.
The announcement surprised many in the state, including employees of both airlines and state legislators who as late as last Tuesday had held a hearing on the merger.
Today, Zander said Hawaiian's action was "regrettable" and said members of Aloha's board of directors voted unanimously to reject Hawaiian's proposal. He also praised Brenneman and TurnWorks for their work on the merger.
Hawaiian spokesman Keoni Wagner said tonight, "We don't necessarily agree with Aloha's characterization of the negotiations, but we also choose not to discuss publicly what would otherwise be private conversations."
The apparent power grab by Adams came even though he and his affiliated companies would have been the financial winners if the merger had gone through. Adams stood to receive assets valued at about $109 million. Adams, his companies and other Hawaiian shareholders also would have held a 52 percent stake in the new airline.
Under terms of the original merger, the shareholders of privately owned Aloha Airlines — many of them relatives of the company founders — would have gotten 28 percent of the merged airline, worth an estimated $56 million.
TurnWorks would have received a 20 percent stake in the company.
For more than a year, Aloha and its consultant have viewed TurnWorks and Brenneman as essential to the success of the merger, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last month that outlined how the merger came about.
Aloha's consultant, Mercer Management, initially approached Brenneman in February 2001 asking whether he wanted to invest in the airline. In July, Brenneman, a former top executive with Continental Airlines, met further with Mercer to discuss a possible investment and subsequent merger with Hawaiian.
Hawaiian officials, contacted in August, initially appeared cool to the idea but after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and subsequent downturn in travel, they agreed to "discuss a possible merger involving the two airlines and TurnWorks," according to the documents.
On Sept. 22, according to the documents, Mercer and senior management officials of Aloha and Hawaiian met and Mercer proposed that both airlines should continue to include Brenneman and TurnWorks in the merger discussions as Brenneman "was likely to be an important factor in creating an agreement between the two airlines, leading the integration efforts, and running the combined carrier and in generating maximum value for shareholders of both companies."
On Sept. 25, the documents say, all parties agreed to proceed with merger talks. They also agreed "that the involvement of TurnWorks and Brenneman would be an important factor in consummating a deal, as past efforts to combine the two airlines were not successful."
TurnWorks officials said in a statement today, "We were surprised and disappointed (by Hawaiian's decision) ... The failure to extend the timetable essentially precludes completing this complex transaction....
The abrupt end to the merger, which was announced Dec. 19, leaves the future of the two airlines and of Hawai'i's interisland airline market uncertain. In announcing the deal three months ago, executives with both airlines said they needed to merge because conditions in the airline industry — and in the interisland market in particular — had made it impossible for them to survive separately.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, both airlines lost tens of thousands of dollars a day and furloughed hundreds of workers. In recent weeks, as the Mainland economy has recovered, there have been signs of improvement in the local airline market.
Still, documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission show that Aloha is financially more vulnerable than Hawaiian. The privately held airline has more debt on its books and reported a $1.25 million loss at the end of the third quarter Sept. 30. The airline also has smaller and older aircraft and fewer flights to the Mainland.
Today Zander said Aloha has its own business plan to move ahead "on a stand-alone basis." Aloha spokesman Stu Glauberman said Zander will be meeting with Aloha's employees' union executives tomorrow.
Before the announcements over the weekend, the two airlines had been working on a joint application to take advantage of a special antitrust exemption granted by Congress last November to cooperate on some operations, such as routes, scheduling and pricing....
Gov. Ben Cayetano had been a supporter of the merger and said today, "The failure of the merger had nothing to do with the U.S. Department of Justice, the state Legislature or public opposition. This was a business decision that we will have to accept. The state administration will do its best to try to assure that Hawai'i will continue to have two viable interisland carriers."
State Sen. Ron Menor, D-18th (Mililani, Waipahu, Crestview), chairman of the Senate Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing Committee, had opposed the merger and his committee took part in statewide hearings....
The mood among workers at Honolulu's interisland terminal was split between the two airlines today, with Aloha employees grim-faced and in no mood to talk about the failed merger, and Hawaiian employees buoyant.
Baggage handlers outside the Hawaiian half of the terminal this afternoon burst into ebullient giggles when asked how they and their co-workers felt about the merger being called off.
"We still have our jobs!" said Thad Estrada, one of the Hawaiian handlers. "Everybody is pretty happy right now. There had been a lot of stress lately, and then today, even though all the schedules and everything are still the same, everybody is smiling. It sure makes the day go better."...
Outside the terminal, Tammy Castro of Mililani and Diane Halemano of Makakilo grew tired of driving around the airport while waiting to pick up relatives, and parked in a lot to talk until their cell phones rang.
"Did you see about the merger?" Castro said. "Oh, I am so happy."
Castro said she'd signed a petition earlier, asking that the merger be stopped.
"They'd have a monopoly on the fares, and we'd have no one else to go to," she said. "We need a choice. People would lose their jobs and we already have enough unemployment. Besides," she added. "No offense, but I just love Aloha."
~ ~ ~
NEW DISCOVERY (07-21-08):
October 10, 2003
Hemmeter
still fighting
The one-time Hawaii resort
developer has come back
to town to see friends
and speak his piece
By Russ Lynch, Star-Bulletin
Former Hawaii developer Chris Hemmeter has battled prostate cancer and Parkinson's disease and is now dealing with a killer cancer affecting the bile duct. For Hemmeter, it's a liver transplant or death and his doctors told him he wouldn't make his 64th birthday.
But in a visit with friends in Honolulu this week, which included a party for that birthday, Hemmeter said his biggest trial was dealing with corrupt politicians in New Orleans.
Hemmeter -- who developed King's Alley and the twin-tower Hyatt Regency Waikiki, as well as luxury resorts such as the Hyatt Regency Waikoloa on the Big Island, now the Hilton Waikoloa Village, and the Westin Maui -- said in an interview that he was upset about the way Louisiana reporters picked on him over his grand plan for a $1 billion casino in New Orleans.
The bottom line to Hemmeter is that while the casino plan failed, it also put Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards in federal prison a year ago, to serve a 10-year term for extortion.
And Hemmeter said the luxury resorts he built in Hawaii made real money for him and his family and are now doing well again, despite setbacks under mostly Japanese owners following the burst of the late 1980s Japanese investment bubble.
Hemmeter sold those resorts at big profits, but when he stepped into the murky waters of Mississippi politics he ran aground, leading to the filing of personal bankruptcy by Hemmeter and his wife Patsy in 1997.
It began with the award to the Hemmeter group 10 years ago of a lease for a property designated to house the city's first land-based casino. The 60-year ground lease, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, was awarded because "we had the best plan," Hemmeter said.
Enter Edwards, a keen gambler and, according to Hemmeter and other critics, a corrupt politician. Edwards wanted a piece of the action for himself and his cronies and relatives, Hemmeter said. "He let me know in no uncertain terms that he expected his boys cut in on the deal. We said, no way we could do business like that," Hemmeter said. That's when the rot set in, ending with Edwards ignoring the law that said the land owner, in this case Hemmeter's company, would choose the gaming operator and simply telling Hemmeter that his choice of Caesar's as an operator was not going to be approved.
In the end, Edwards forced through a deal with three companies sharing the business, leaving Hemmeter with about a third of it.
"I ended up as a minority investor and watched my investment go down, down, down," Hemmeter said.
Hemmeter, who had kept his Hawaii developments as individual entities, ended up breaking that rule in New Orleans and consolidating several of his companies and pledging several multimillion-dollar homes as collateral for loans. The first casino, on a temporary location intended to get the business started while a new one was built, closed a few months after it opened in 1995, with Edwards' pick Harrah's going bankrupt and bond-holders unable to recover the $400 million they had invested.
That was about the end of the saga, except for the corruption and extortion federal case against Edwards.
During the selection process, Hemmeter paid for Edwards and other Louisiana officials to make luxury trips to Hawaii.
Hemmeter maintains that was all part of the shakedown and said he was vindicated when it was revealed that federal investigators had bugged his phones for 2 1/2 years and in "tens of hours" of tapes and they were unable to show one incident in which Hemmeter did anything wrong. The experience certainly soured him on the location. "I've never set foot in New Orleans, even to change planes, since 1995," he said.
For now, Hemmeter is looking after his health. He hopes for a liver transplant in the next month or so. He and his family have embarked on a new business, a Western-style restaurant called Saddle Ranch Chop House. The first unit is up and running next to the Universal Studios theme park in Los Angeles and is doing well, particularly late at night when the mechanical-bull rides, music and bands are in full swing, he said.
"We're doing just under $1 million a month in revenues" and that works out to about $250,000 in profits. Planning for four more restaurants in the next two years, Hemmeter said he hopes for eventual profits of more than $10 million a year and a number of potential buyers are paying attention.
"We should be able to get 10-12 times earnings when we sell," he said. The restaurant business is headed by Hemmeter's oldest son, Mark.
Hemmeter is also working on a golf project on the mainland. He said his family businesses have lined up some 400 pay-for-play golf courses that are interested. The idea is to have a couple of holes at each golf course wired for video with half a dozen cameras at each hole. Golfers can turn it on by dropping a $2 token in a slot and later they can go to a Web site and watch the video along with an analysis of their swings.
There will also be a $10,000 prize for a hole in one and the cameras won't let anyone cheat, he said.
Meanwhile, Chris and Patsy Hemmeter are living in a gated community near Bel Air, outside Los Angeles. Second son Chris graduated from Harvard business school and went into a dot-com business. When that failed, he got into the food and beverage distribution business and started a credit card for restaurants, but he wants to get a doctorate and may end up teaching.
Daughter Katie is doing well as an actress and playwright and makes money buying and selling residential real estate, Hemmeter said.
The Hemmeters had a "reverse surprise birthday party" at the Kahala Avenue home of lingerie multilevel marketing moguls Walter and Tiffany James Wednesday night, with a short but elite list of guests invited for what they thought was going to be a video-conference with Hemmeter speaking from the mainland.
Present were three former governors -- George Ariyoshi, John Waihee and Ben Cayetano -- former Mayor Frank Fasi and an array of other Hemmeter friends representing much of the long-time business leadership in the islands.
Guests were delighted when Walter James, who runs UndercoverWear with his wife, confessed that Chris and Patsy Hemmeter were in the house. Hemmeter was welcomed warmly and he said doctors had told him and Patsy that they should not expect him to be around for a 64th birthday party.
One who was completely taken by surprise was Larry Johnson, former chief executive officer of Bank of Hawaii, who had arrived only half an hour earlier on a flight from New York. Johnson said he hadn't showered but his wife Claire told him not to worry because the video link would not detect any body odor.
Thos Rohr, who headed the group that developed the Waikoloa Resort, said the best thing about Hemmeter was that he started at the bottom, as a trainee with Sheraton Hotels here in the early 1960s, and rose to the top, handling deals with hundreds of millions of dollars in the same gracious way he always acted.
Tim Guard, a longtime Hemmeter friend and president of the stevedoring company McCabe, Hamilton & Renny, called the reunion "an evening of smiles."
www.starbulletin.com/2003/10/10/business/story2.html
~ ~ ~
November 28, 2003
Developer Christopher Hemmeter
dies at age 64
Pacific Business News (Honolulu)
Christopher B. Hemmeter, a prolific developer who built some of Hawaii's most notable hotels and resorts, died Thursday at his Los Angeles home. He was 64.
Eight months ago he was diagnosed with severe liver cancer. He also had been coping with Parkinson's disease. This was his second bout with cancer.
Sharing memories of his father, son Mark Hemmeter told PBN from Los Angeles, "Thanksgiving was his favorite holiday because it was all about just family. Our whole family was with him yesterday, and it was very peaceful."
Hemmeter came to Hawaii in the 1960s and became a noted developer while still in his 20s, along with partners Henry Shigekane and Diane Plotts. Many credit Hemmeter with creating the concept of a destination resort. He moved to the mainland in 1991 and became a casino developer in Colorado and New Orleans. His most recent venture was a successful restaurant near Universal Studios.
Former President Jimmy Carter, Hemmeter's close friend, told PBN for an October profile: "Chris has the uncanny ability to dream ... then put his concepts into practice for the enjoyment of countless others."
"We are extremely saddened by his passing, but we also rejoice as we reflect upon his life," the family said in a statement Friday. "He stood for all that was good in us and gave unselfishly of his time and energy. He will be greatly missed. His affection and caring for others, his charisma, and his professional accomplishments lead many people to pronounce that he was truly 'larger than life.'"
For his accomplishments, Hemmeter has received numerous awards including being named twice as the Businessman of the Year, Salesperson of the Year, Marketing Man of the Year and Islander of the Year in Hawaii. He was inducted into the American Academy of Achievement in 1979. In 1991 Hemmeter was selected the Independent Hotelier of the World.
Hemmeter's activities went beyond the hotel industry. He was the founder and chairman of the Bank of Honolulu, a director of the First Hawaiian Bank, a director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C., a trustee of Punahou School in Honolulu, a member of the Young Presidents Organization, a director of the Carter Center, a director of Morrison Knudsen, a director of Resort Income Investors, and a Trustee Fellow of Cornell University where he received the prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year award granted to Cornell University graduates.
"Hawaii needs to appreciate his contributions to the visitor industry and the state," close Hemmeter friend and retired Bank of Hawaii CEO Larry Johnson told PBN previously. "His legacy will live here forever."
He is survived by his wife of 25 years, Patricia; children Mark and daughter-in-law Lisa, Chris and fiancée Debi, Katie and husband Cully; stepchildren Kelley, Shane, Brendan and wife Brook, and Holli; sister Sally Younge and husband Eric; brother Dr. Mead Hemmeter and wife Mari-Jo; sister-in-law Karen Cook; and six grandchildren, Taylor, Maddy, Annabelle, Austin, Ryan and Quinn.
Private services will be held Sunday in Los Angeles. In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to the new Christopher B. and Patricia K. Hemmeter Kahaola Hospice Foundation at 1164 Bishop St., Suite 800, Honolulu, HI 96813.
http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2003/11/24/daily58.html
~ ~ ~
NEW DISCOVERY (11/16/07): RE: Witness former Governor Ben Cayetano:
November 30, 2001
New York artist selected
to paint Cayetano portrait
The State Foundation on Culture and the Arts has selected Daniel Greene, a New York artist, to paint the official portrait of Gov. Ben Cayetano.
Executive Director David Farmer said the final selection was made by Cayetano from a small group of artists who had submitted portfolios to the foundation.
The state will spend $30,000 for the portrait, with Cayetano expected to make up any extra payments, Farmer said.
http://starbulletin.com/2001/11/30/news/briefs.html
http://www.danielgreeneartist.com/portraits-public/tropical.htm
~ ~ ~
July 11, 2005
Famed attorney David Schutter
By Ken Kobayashi, Advertiser Courts Writer
David C. Schutter, the brilliant Honolulu trial attorney whose aggressive and fearless representation of the powerless and powerful made him one of Hawai'i's best-known lawyers, died yesterday at his Kailua home following a massive stroke last month. He was 64.
Schutter died about 3:20 p.m., said his son Chris, who was at his father's side along with three of Schutter's grandchildren...
During his final days, David Schutter was visited by a steady stream of family members and friends, from former Gov. Ben Cayetano to Associate Hawai'i Supreme Court Justice James Duffy. They came to pay final respects to the almost legendary lawyer known to take on difficult cases and prevailing based on the force of his personality, hard work and near-photographic memory.
"He was such a passionate warrior for the underdog," said Duffy, a longtime friend. "He really felt for the less privileged people in society. He was just a ferocious advocate."
But the other side of Schutter was his generosity and his love for his sons and grandchildren, said Chris Schutter, who took care of his father the past 2 1/2 years at their Keolu Hills home.
"He was the most generous and compassionate man that I've ever known, not only to us, but complete strangers," Chris Schutter said. "He was that type of man: If he could help you, he would not hesitate."
Schutter's reputation started growing in the 1970s, when his clients included reputed underworld figures, victims of police misconduct and brutality and some of Hawai'i's most infamous violent criminal defendants.
He focused on civil litigation in the 1980s, including representing Big Island rancher Larry Mehau in his quest to clear his name of allegations that he was the "godfather" of organized crime in Hawai'i.
Along the way, Schutter clashed with some judges, who would sometimes be annoyed by his flamboyance, razor sharp tongue and courtroom theatrics that could overshadow his well-known ability to cross-examine witnesses and argue the heart of his clients' cases.
But Schutter also defended judges' decisions, including when they were criticized by former city Prosecutor Charles Marsland.
Schutter's legacy includes a legion of young lawyers who flocked to him, eager to learn from the master attorney. After leaving his office, they rose to positions throughout Hawai'i's legal community. Among them is Associate Justice Steven Levinson. Another who worked with Schutter is Cayetano.
"There are many smart lawyers in town, and David was very smart — but it was his tremendous will to win, his imagination and his willingness to take risks that separated him from the rest," Cayetano said.
"He was the one everyone turned to if it was a tough case," said Honolulu attorney Frank O'Brien, Schutter's partner in the 1970s. "He did stuff that nobody else had the courage to do, the ability to do."
Born on Sept. 2, 1940, Schutter grew up in Wisconsin, earning a law degree at the University of Wisconsin and later working at a Phoenix law firm. He came to Hawai'i in the 1960s when his military intelligence Army reserve unit was attached to the 29th Infantry Brigade at Schofield Barracks.
Schutter and Henry Peters, who would become speaker of the state House and a Bishop Estate trustee, organized a campaign to deactivate the brigade. It failed and Schutter served in Vietnam.
Upon his return in 1969, the young lawyer was one of three finalists to head the public defender's office. Longtime friend Brook Hart got the job and recalls Schutter's response: " 'That's great.' "
But Hart recalled Schutter added, " 'I'm going to make a fortune.' "
In private practice, Schutter pioneered the successful representation of victims in police brutality and misconduct cases against the city. He represented John F. Orso, who was awarded $250,000 by a jury for his lawsuit that argued he was falsely arrested for the 1970 Chinatown murder of underworld figure Francis Burke.
Schutter also represented teenager Rodney Kiyota, one of the most notorious defendants of the 1970s. Schutter negotiated a stunning plea agreement in which Kiyota received a 10-year prison term for manslaughter for the 1976 stabbing of a 12-year-old girl and reduced rape and sodomy charges involving a University of Hawai'i student.
In perhaps his most explosive criminal case, Schutter was the lawyer for organized crime figure Charles Stevens, who was found guilty by a jury of the 1978 double murder of a man and a woman whose dismembered bodies were found in a shallow grave in Wai'anae Valley. The verdict was set aside by Circuit Judge Harold Shintaku.
See also: Cesspool
~ ~ ~
March 3, 2002
Cayetano envisions state
art museum expansion
He would like to see all 5 floors
of its site filled with artwork
By Rosemarie Bernardo
rbernardo@starbulletin.com
Gov. Ben Cayetano's dream of a state art museum is bigger than the first two floors of the One Capitol District building.
The governor told a conference of art teachers that within five years, he would like to see all five floors of the building across the street from the state Capitol devoted to art.
"The state foundation has a second floor right now. One day, I'd like to see the entire building dedicated to the art of Hawaii, the art of the Pacific, the art of Asia and the art of those across our country," Cayetano said.
A new state art museum is scheduled to open on the first two floors of the building in the fall.
The governor said after he leaves office, he plans to lobby the next governor to devote the whole building to house art collections.
But Cayetano and interim state Foundation on Culture and the Arts director Ron Yamakawa declined to comment on reports that the current state art museum project is over budget.
Yamakawa would only say that the museum is still scheduled to open in October.
In his state of the state address last year, Cayetano estimated turning the first two floors of the building into a state art museum would cost $3.3 million.
In a related matter, the governor said he plans to appoint four new members to the board that oversees the state arts foundation. Two board members, including the former chairwoman, resigned just before a vote to fire former culture and arts foundation executive director David Farmer on Feb. 20. Two other board members had resigned previously.
The board oversees the work of the foundation to administer state arts and culture programs. One percent of the state's construction projects is set aside for the acquisition of art.
Cayetano said he did not know the details of the board's decision to fire Farmer. He said he hoped the controversy would not interfere with the board's mission.
"It's unfortunate. David was put in a very difficult position," Cayetano said.
The governor said it would be up to the board to hire an executive director.
The One Capitol District building was used by the Armed Forces YMCA from 1928 to 1987. Local developer Chris Hemmeter purchased the building in 1987 for $11 million for his corporate headquarters. Thirteen years later, Hemmeter sold the building to BIGI Corp. of Japan for $82 million after he decided to move elsewhere.
In 2000, Cayetano's administration purchased the Hemmeter Building for $22.5 million.
Cayetano talked about his plans for the state art museum during a welcoming speech at the "Governor's Conference On Arts Education 2002" held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village yesterday.
http://starbulletin.com/2002/03/03/news/index10.html
~ ~ ~
May 30, 2002
Veto for cultural
center bailout
Cayetano says criticism swayed him against approving
Japanese Cultural Center funds
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Gov. Ben Cayetano said yesterday he will veto the surprise $8 million construction appropriation slipped into the state budget and approved by lawmakers to bail out the financially troubled Japanese Cultural Center.
The governor said he is taking the action in "response from the public and, in particular, Japanese Americans who have contacted me and told me that they thought that the way it was done was not right."
Senate Ways and Means Chairman Brian Taniguchi (D, Manoa-Moiliili-McCully-Pawaa) inserted the appropriation into the budget after learning of the problems the nonprofit center had in making its mortgage payments. He had been criticized for slipping it into the budget unnoticed.
Taniguchi said last night that $8 million appropriation "wasn't inserted in the last minute. It's factually not true.
"My goal is to try to be sure that the center is preserved. If he (the governor) vetoes it, that's one less option that the cultural center will have. But it's his prerogative to do so."
Sen. Sam Slom (R, Kalama Valley-Aina Haina) said Taniguchi is "technically correct" because the appropriation was added to the budget before conference committee meetings, however, "there was never a public hearing on it.
"No one came forward and said, 'This is why we want the appropriation.' It was totally inappropriate to be in the budget. I applaud the governor's action," he added.
The money was earmarked for planning, land acquisition, design and construction for the center.
"I think the senator had the best of intentions. I just think that it is an appropriation that does not have the support of the community, including the Japanese-American community," Cayetano said.
Susan Kodani, the center's president, has said the center did not directly ask for the money but had welcomed the support.
Although $10 million was raised largely through private donations to support the 8-year-old cultural center, it had only enough capital to operate on a day-to-day basis, Kodani said in March.
Kodani said last night that she and other members of the center are discussing "many kinds of other options" to meet the center's mortgage payments, but would not comment on those alternatives.
Cayetano also said he is still weighing a veto of $5.5 million in the budget for the University of Hawaii's purchase of the old Paradise Park property in Manoa Valley because he is not sure it is a university priority.
The university reportedly was negotiating to buy 150 acres in upper Manoa Valley that includes the former Paradise Park as the site for a Pacific Center for Ecosystem Science to coordinate state, federal and private research into preserving Pacific island ecosystems.
Conservation biologists and archaeologists would use the rain forest setting for their studies, according to Kenneth Kaneshiro, director of the UH Center for Conservation Research and Training. He said the concept of the shared site came up more than 10 years ago.
The center also would provide a site for the UH medical school to study linkages between ecosystem health and human health, addressing such problems as dengue fever, Kaneshiro said.
Cayetano said he needs to discuss the proposal with UH President Evan Dobelle.
"I want to know why the university did not include it in its capital improvement program," he said.
"This was a legislative proposal that came primarily from the (House) speaker's office," Cayetano said. "I think if the university wants to do it, then the university should move forward and get the Board of Regents to support it."
The Paradise Park purchase is not included in the university's priority list of capital improvement projects, and if approved would displace projects with a higher priority, he said.
http://starbulletin.com/2002/05/30/news/story1.html
* * * * *
“I’ll protect you, Jeremy”
Political cartoon by John Pritchett
http://www.pritchettcartoons.com/graulty2.htm
* * * * *
September 3, 2001
Cayetano pardons 30 in
past year, 110 total
By Kevin Dayton, Advertiser Capitol Bureau Chief
A former politician convicted of voter fraud in 1984 and an attorney convicted of terroristic threatening a decade ago were among the 30 people pardoned by Gov. Ben Cayetano in the past year.
Cayetano also pardoned Gary E. Kaplan, who in 1971 confessed to police he had committed 500 burglaries over five years. Kaplan was convicted of robbery and theft, and sentenced to up to 20 years in prison in 1971.
In one of the most noteworthy cases, Cayetano pardoned Ross M. Segawa, who was convicted in 1984 in a voter fraud case. Segawa, who was a 1982 candidate for the state House, arranged to have University of Hawai'i law school students who lived outside his district register within his district so they could vote for him.
Segawa pleaded no contest to criminal conspiracy, criminal solicitation, evidence tampering and 10 counts of election fraud. Segawa and his mentor, former Sen. Clifford "Chip" Uwaine, served time.
Segawa could not be found for comment, and the governor's office declined to say where he is.
Kim Murakawa, Cayetano's press secretary, said Segawa was convicted 17 years ago, and "has made a positive social adjustment since then." She said the state attorney general's office, the Hawai'i Paroling Authority and the Department of Public Safety recommended that the pardon be granted.
Cayetano also pardoned former Honolulu attorney Leonard Appell, who made news in the '80s when he was accused in an alleged murder-for-hire scheme.
Appell was imprisoned Oct. 15, 1987 for allegedly attempting to hire a man to kill attorney Martin Wolff, who had sued Appell. Appell was acquitted, but later charged in a second case for allegedly threatening another man by hiring someone to run him down with a car. Appell was convicted in 1991 of terroristic threatening, reckless endangering and failure to return a rented motor vehicle.
Cayetano pardoned him in March, which was 10 years after the convictions. Appell also could not be found for comment, but Murakawa said Appell "has not been arrested for any criminal offenses since that case, and is considered a successful member of his community."
So far, Cayetano has pardoned about 110 people in his more than six years in office. Cayetano caused a stir last year when he pardoned Honolulu attorney Thomas Foley. Foley was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison in 1997 for killing a man and seriously injuring the man's wife in a car crash while driving drunk.
See also: Cesspool
~ ~ ~
January 25, 2001
Developer wants approval
to build casino at Ko 'Olina
By Kevin Dayton and Tanya Bricking. Advertiser Staff Writers
When Gov. Ben Cayetano traveled to the Bahamas last year, he met with executives from an international hotel and casino company that is now proposing a new 1,500-room resort at Ko ‘Olina that would include gambling.
The gambling proposal by Sun International Hotels Ltd. appears to have little hope of approval by the state Legislature this year. Although Cayetano said yesterday he is willing to listen to the plan, he has long opposed casinos in Hawai‘i and isn’t promising to support Sun’s proposal.
Cayetano was in the Bahamas Dec. 9-13 visiting the Atlantis Resort, a facility owned by Sun International that boasts the largest aquarium in the world. Kim Murakawa, Cayetano’s press secretary, said the governor’s main purpose for the trip was to visit the aquarium, but Cayetano was informed at the time that Sun would propose a development in Hawai‘i.
Cayetano was accompanied on the taxpayer-financed trip by his former chief of staff, Charles Toguchi, who is now a lobbyist for Sun, and by public relations executive Jim Boersma, who has represented Sun for about a year.
Boersma said the governor, Toguchi and he had dinner with Sun executives, but that as far as Boersma knows, Cayetano did not discuss gambling with the executives.
Sun is proposing two bills that would allow developers to compete for a license for a single casino in west O‘ahu. The operations would be overseen by a gaming commission and pay a wagering tax of 12 percent to the state.
Under the bills, the state would be guaranteed a minimum take of $32 million to $42 million a year for the first three years, with $30 to $40 million going into a scholarship program for college-bound students who maintain grades of a B-minus or better, Boersma said.
The proposal will be introduced in the Senate by Senate President Robert Bunda, D-22nd (Wahiawa, Waialua, Sunset Beach), and in the House by Rep. Nathan Suzuki, D-31st (Salt Lake, Moanalua).
State lawmakers have rejected one gambling proposal after another in the last decade, most recently killing a measure last February that would have legalized shipboard gambling.
Most lawmakers said they remain opposed to all forms of gambling. In a survey of legislators by The Advertiser last month, 41 of the 51 members of the House said they oppose legalizing casino gambling, as did 19 of 25 state senators.
Only two of the state’s 76 representatives and senators said they would vote to legalize casino gambling. One is Suzuki, and the other is House Tourism Committee Chairman Jerry Chang, D-2nd (South Hilo) who has agreed to hold a hearing to consider Suzuki’s bill.
Key legislators opposed
Key leaders such as House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee Chairman Eric Hamakawa, D-3rd (South Hilo, Puna) and House Finance Committee Chairman Dwight Takamine, D-1st (Hamakua, North Kohala) have historically opposed gambling. Hamakawa joined in a petition drive among House members in 1998 to end all discussion of gambling that year.
A gambling measure likely would have to clear both the Finance and Judiciary committees.
In the Senate, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Brian Kanno, D-20th (‘Ewa, Makakilo, Kapolei) and Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Brian Taniguchi, D-11th (McCully, Mo‘ili‘ili, Manoa) both indicated in the Advertiser survey they oppose legalizing casino gambling.
Taniguchi said yesterday he believes there are other ways to finance college scholarships, and "personally, I would have some very serious concerns about passing casino gambling. I think it would have an adverse impact on Hawai‘i, and I think it would change Hawai‘i as we know it."
Boersma said the Sun resort would provide 5,000 to 6,000 permanent jobs, making Sun one of the largest private employers in the Islands.
The gambling would be an "amenity" in the larger resort with other attractions, Boersma said, adding that less than 30 percent of Sun’s revenue is from gaming.
"If it’s done right, it can be positive for Hawai‘i," Boersma said. "Overall for me, the positives outweigh the negatives, and I think if people are open-minded and look at it, they’ll come to the same conclusion."
Boersma said a media campaign will kick off with newspaper advertisements at the end of this week to make a case for the gambling proposal.
Ko Olina denies involvement
No one at Ko ‘Olina has talked to anyone about a casino at the resort, said Sheila Donnelly-Theroux, whose Sheila Donnelly & Associates company speaks for Ko ‘Olina.
Ko ‘Olina originally was conceived as a $3 billion resort project with condominiums, single-family homes, hotels and stores fronting manmade lagoons.
Financing for Ko ‘Olina collapsed in the early 1990s as Japanese backers of the project ran into difficulty, and only a fraction of the project was completed.
"Nobody at Ko ‘Olina is part of any group or has talked to anybody about a casino," she said.
Gambling popular in Isles
Only Hawai‘i, Utah and Tennessee prohibit gambling of any kind. But gambling is still popular among Hawai‘i’s residents. An average of 644 people in Hawai‘i fly to Las Vegas every day.
Dorothy Bobilin, president of Hawaii’s Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, said a casino would "open the floodgates" for other forms of gambling.
She said her opposition is based on more than moral ground, that it focuses on social and economic problems she said gambling could bring.
"Look at the ripple effect of the Kahapeas and Sias in the world," she said of former Honolulu housing official Michael Kahapea, a high-stakes gambler who stole nearly $6 million in city money for his Las Vegas gambling adventures, and bankrupt local financier Sukamto Sia, who left millions of dollars in gambling debts.
If a gambling bill develops out of talk of a casino proposal, it will mean a battle in the Legislature, Bobilin said.
"We will fight that. We will get our troops out," she said. "This will be war."
‘There is no free lunch’
The problem for the anti-gambling group is that lobbyists have a lot more money to develop a public relations campaign to sell people on the idea of a casino, said Ira Rohter, associate professor of political science at the University of Hawai‘i as well as a Green Party member and gambling opponent.
"It’s one of those things based on the myth of revenues coming in," he said. "· It looks like free money. It turns out there are a lot of social costs.
“There is no free lunch, you know?"...
See also: Cesspool
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Benjamin Cayetano is expected to testify regarding his business, professional, personal, and political relationships with David C. Farmer, John Goemans, Chief Justice John Roberts, John Waihee III, Judge David Ezra, Judge Kevin Chang, Judge Barry Kurren, Judge Harold Shintaku, Margery Bronster, Earl Anzai, Lyn Anzai, Hugh Jones, Robert Clarke, Edwina Clarke, Sukamto Sia, Diane Plotts, Ron Rewald, Jeff Watanabe, Clayton Hee, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Haunani Apoliona, Oswald Stender, Hawaiian Housing Authority, Faye Kurren, Robert Miller, Colbert Matsumoto, Ronald Libkuman, Michael Green, Larry Mehau, Wayne Metcalf, Hiroyshi “Scrub” Tanaka, Peter Savio, Ben Benson, The Nature Conservancy, Elizabeth K. Lindsey Buyers, Judith Flanders, Campbell Estate, Tom Foley, Kazu Hayashida, Judith Neustadter Fuqua, Mary Lou Woo, Steven Guttman, Curtis Ching, Gayle Lau, James Nicholson, Carol Murakawa, Hawaiian Electric, Joshua Gotbaum, Hawaiian Airlines, Aloha Airlines, Summit Communications, Sandwich Isles Communications, Chevron-Texaco, Hill & Knowlton, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Linda Lingle, Mark Bennett, David Schutter, Larry Mehau, Judge Karen Radius, Judge James Duffy, John Marshall, Anthony Ching, Ferdinand Marcos, Imelda Marcos, Japanese Cultural Center, Fred Hemmings, Martin Wolff, Daniel Kihano, Mazie Hirono, Francis Oda, Group 70, Robin Campaniano, and others to be named upon discovery.
Internet References:
Chronologies
www.kycbs.net/BH-CHRON-88-96.htm
www.kycbs.net/BH-CHRON-97-99.htm
www.kycbs.net/BH-Settlement-Chronology.htm
Documents, Letters, News Articles and Related Links
http://archives.starbulletin.com/1997/08/27/news/story1.html
http://starbulletin.com/97/10/24/news/satnews.html
http://starbulletin.com/98/04/17/news/story4.html
http://starbulletin.com/98/09/19/news/story2.html
http://starbulletin.com/1999/01/13/news/story1.html
http://starbulletin.com/1999/05/15/editorial/shapiro.html
http://starbulletin.com/1999/05/25/news/story2.html
http://www.starbulletin.com/1999/08/21/news/
http://starbulletin.com/1999/11/03/news/story7.html
http://starbulletin.com/1999/11/23/news/story2.html
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/1999/Nov/23/localnews1.html
http://www.msu.edu/~mbenham/Broken%20Trust.1999.pdf
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/2000/Apr/04/localnews8.html
http://starbulletin.com/2000/08/16/news/story4.html
http://starbulletin.com/2000/09/16/news/story3.html
http://starbulletin.com/2002/03/03/news/story10.html
http://starbulletin.com/2002/05/30/news/story1.html
www.starbulletin.com/2004/02/09/news/index2.html
http://www.becketfund.org/litigate/HOKComplaint.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_v._Cayetano
www.kycbs.net/AAA-JUSTICE-10-31-0.htm
www.kycbs.net/AAA-Guttman-5-29-1.htm
www.kycbs.net/AAA-Guttman-6-7-1.htm
www.kycbs.net/GuttmanComplaint-7-30-1.htm
http://starbulletin.com/2001/12/03/news/story5.html
www.kycbs.net/Claim-Woo-10-1-4.htm
www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Answer.htm
www.kycbs.net/Claims-By-Harmon
www.kycbs.net/FiringDobelle.htm
www.kycbs.net/Broken-Trust-Book.htm
www.kycbs.net/BuzzardsOfParadise.htm
www.kycbs.net/Alexander-Baldwin.htm
www.kycbs.net/PunaConnection.htm
www.kycbs.net/SandwichIsles.htm
www.kycbs.net/Summit-Communications.htm
Equity 2048 -The Richards Report
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~rroth/Richards%20Master%20Report.doc
XL Reinsurance Policy No. XLRKS-01796
www.kycbs.net/Doc-EQ2048-XL-Policy-Dec.pdf
www.kycbs.net/Doc-EQ2048-XL-Policy.pdf
www.kycbs.net/Doc-EQ2048-XL-Policy-Append.pdf
Equity 2048 - Related Correspondence and Documents
www.kycbs.net/Doc-EQ2048-Mediation-Order-3-9-0.pdf
www.kycbs.net/EQ2048-Anzai-McCubbin-4-27-0.pdf
www.kycbs.net/EQ2048-AG-Trustees-4-27-0.pdf
www.kycbs.net/EQ2048-Miyagi-AG-4-27-0.pdf
www.kycbs.net/Doc-EQ2048-Seal-Docs-5-3-0.pdf
www.kycbs.net/Doc-EQ2048-PC-Peters-5-5-0.pdf
www.kycbs.net/Doc-EQ2048-AG-Witnesses-5-19-0.pdf
www.kycbs.net/EQ2048-XL-Miyagi-AG-5-26-0.pdf
www.kycbs.net/Doc-EQ2048-Form990-1998-pdf
www.kycbs.net/EQ2048-DiscoveryFees-5-30-0.pdf
www.kycbs.net/EQ2048-AG-Objection-6-23-0.pdf
www.kycbs.net/EQ2048-Federal-Response-6-23-0.pdf
www.kycbs.net/EQ2048-Deposition-Notice-7-21-0.pdf
IRS Closing Agreement for Kamehameha Schools
www.kycbs.net/KSBE-IRSagrmnt.pdf
www.kycbs.net/KSBE-IRSagrmnt2.pdf
Apartheid, Hawaiian Style
www.kycbs.net/Apartheid-Hawaii.htm
BEN, by Benjamin J. Cayetano
Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement and Political Manipulation
www.kycbs.net/Broken-Trust-Book.htm
Lost Generations: A Boy, A School, A Princess
www.kycbs.net/Lost-Generations.htm
KITV Special Report
www.thehawaiichannel.com/newsarchive/7510847/detail.html
TO GO TO THE FARMER VS. HARMON WITNESS INDEX
Originally posted: October 18, 2005, by The Catbird
Last Update: July 2, 2010
CHRONOLOGY
October 18, 2005: Originally posted on www.the-catbird-seat.net
March 13, 2007: Judge David Ezra signs Order to shut down website
July 2, 2010: Latest update on www.kycbs.net
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