David C. Farmer, Successor-Trustee vs. Harmon
(Formerly Woo vs. Harmon & Nicholson vs. Harmon)
U.S. District Court For the District of Hawaii
Judges: David A. Ezra; Kevin S. Chang
—
DEFENDANT’S WITNESS
GUIDO GIACOMETTI
Former executive for Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate; currently does work for Kamehameha Schools’ for-profit subsidiary; Trustee in the Sukamto Sia bankruptcy case; former executive for Grove Farm; husband of Susan Tius.
Address to be determined.
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Executive Office for United States Trustees
Washington, D.C.
Office of Research and Planning
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
October 30, 2001
U.S. TRUSTEE PROGRAM LAUNCHES
BANKRUPTCY CIVIL ENFORCEMENT INITIATIVE
WASHINGTON, D.C.--The United States Trustee Program has launched an initiative to more aggressively use existing civil enforcement methods to curb abuse of the bankruptcy system, Martha Davis, Acting Director of the Executive Office for United States Trustees, announced today.
"Effective case administration is vital to ensure the American public that the bankruptcy system provides relief for honest but unfortunate debtors overcome by serious financial difficulties," Davis stated. "The Civil Enforcement Initiative emanates from the U.S. Trustee Program's long-standing commitment to enforce the Nation's bankruptcy laws and explore other meaningful strategies to bolster public confidence in the integrity and effectiveness of the bankruptcy system."
"The priorities of the initiative will require a concerted effort nationwide to use existing tools in a way that best accomplishes tangible results and improvements for case administration," Davis continued. "Many of our offices use such strategies today and we hope to build upon their experience. By focusing our resources on these priorities, we also seek to address some of the concerns that have been at the forefront of debate in recent years both before Congress and in other public venues. In the end, this is very much a community effort that will require communication and cooperation with private bankruptcy trustees and with the bankruptcy bench and bar."
These are the priorities of the Civil Enforcement Initiative:
Ensuring that Chapter 7 is not abused and that Chapter 7 debtors are held accountable.
Chapter 7 debtors who do not comply with the law will have their cases converted or dismissed, or their bankruptcy discharges denied or revoked. Enforcement measures include motions to dismiss Chapter 7 cases under 11 U.S.C. §§ 707(a) and 707(b), and complaints to bar or defer discharge under 11 U.S.C. § 727.
Protecting consumer debtors, creditors, and others who are victimized by those who mislead or misinform debtors, make false representations in connection with a bankruptcy case, or otherwise abuse the bankruptcy process.
Attorneys and bankruptcy petition preparers (non-attorneys who prepare bankruptcy documents for a fee) must engage in full disclosure, be free of conflicts of interest, and engage in ethical practices. Enforcement measures include motions for sanctions, contempt of court, and disgorgement under 11 U.S.C. § 329 for misconduct by attorneys, and complaints and motions under 11 U.S.C. § 110 for misconduct by bankruptcy petition preparers....
Fighting fraud and abuse by making criminal referrals and assisting United States Attorneys in criminal prosecutions.
The U.S. Trustee Program is a component of the Justice Department that oversees the administration of bankruptcy cases and intervenes in court to enforce the bankruptcy laws. There are 21 regions in the Program, each headed by a U.S. Trustee appointed by the Attorney General.
The Civil Enforcement Initiative took effect Oct. 1, 2001, with the start of the federal government's 2002 fiscal year. Previous U.S. Trustee Program initiatives have focused on issues such as enhancing the supervision of private trustees who administer Chapter 7 bankruptcy cases, increasing the efficiency and speed of Chapter 7 case administration....
Contact:
Jane Limprecht, Public Information Officer
Executive Office for U.S. Trustees
(202) 305-7411
www.usdoj.gov/ust/eo/public_affairs/press/docs/pr20011030.htm
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NEW DISCOVERY (06-06-08):
June 4, 2008
'Death care' experts running RightStar
By Jim Dooley, Advertiser Staff Writer
A new court-approved management team has been installed to operate the financially stricken RightStar group of cemetery and funeral services companies here.
Circuit Judge Sabrina McKenna, who has overseen the companies since foreclosure proceedings were first filed in 2004, yesterday approved a request from the state attorney general's office and Vestin Mortgage of Las Vegas to appoint a group of experienced "death care" professionals from the Mainland to improve operations and finances at the RightStar companies.
Efforts earlier this year to publicly auction the companies were cancelled after no bidders came forward who were willing to pay the minimum asking price of $25 million set by the state and Vestin.
Vestin financed the 2001 purchase of the RightStar companies by a small group of Mainland buyers and filed foreclosure proceedings against the borrowers in 2004, claiming they defaulted on repayment of more than $35 million in loans.
McKenna yesterday released Guido Giacometti, who served as court-appointed receiver at RightStar since 2004, and approved the appointment of retired Circuit Judge Marie Milks as "commissioner" overseeing RightStar operations.
'PRE-NEED' PLANS
The new management group is headed by Dusan "Duke" Radovich, a cemetery and funeral services company operator based in Kansas City, Mo.
Radovich yesterday acknowledged offering to buy the RightStar companies several years ago but said he did not offer an auction bid this year because he felt the $25 million minimum asking price was too high.
He said the first order of business for the new management team will be to finally submit audited statements of RightStar's finances to state regulators.
A heavily redacted copy of the new team's management plan was filed with McKenna, but large portions of the version of the plan available to the public have been removed to "protect sensitive business information," according to papers filed by the office of Attorney General Mark Bennett and Vestin Mortgage. Those parties originally tried to file the entire plan under seal but McKenna ordered sections of it available to the public.
The RightStar companies are the largest operators of cemeteries and funerals in Hawai'i, with nearly 50,000 customers statewide holding "pre-need" contracts for services to be provided when loved ones die.
RightStar owns Valley of the Temples and Diamond Head Mortuary on O'ahu, Maui Memorial Park, and Homelani and Kona Memorial Parks on the Big Island. RightStar also owns several companies that sell and administer "pre-need" funeral plans, including 50th State Funeral Plan.
The state consistently has said that all outstanding RightStar pre-need contracts will be honored.
LAWS TAKE HEAT
One portion of the business plan open to the public says the new management "intends to aggressively market funeral, cemetery and cremation arrangements on a pre-need basis."
A leading national funeral services consumer group, the Funeral Consumers Alliance, has been harshly critical of Hawai'i laws governing operation of such pre-need plans, saying they are among the most lax in the country.
Efforts by the FCA and others to reform the laws have repeatedly failed to win support of state officials and legislators.
Bennett's office has filed civil lawsuits against the former operators of RightStar, alleging that they fraudulently removed between $20 million and $30 million from company trust funds between 2002 to 2004. Those suits are still pending.
Only one criminal charge has been lodged in the case, against former RightStar President John Dooley. He was indicted in late 2006 on a theft charge and was recently arrested in Oregon and returned to Hawai'i to face trial.
Dooley, who has previously denied any wrongdoing, is being held on $100,000 bail.
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NEW DISCOVERY (05-26-08):
The Global Economy's Investment
In Prostitution
Want to know a few of the results of the move towards the so-called "Global Economy" which has become the nirvana Corporate America seeks? Be very careful, you might not like what you find.
According to U.N. documents, 4 million women a year are sold into sexual slavery around the world. Understand, these documents aren't discussing some Mid- Eastern potentate's harem. What we're talking about is 500,000 women "imported" into Western Europe and 90,000 into Italy, alone. These women are kidnapped and sold into prostitution for the gratification of men like the late Larry Hilblom, the founder of DHL courier service. Hilblom, it should be added, also participated in the kidnapping and sales of many young women, as well.
The majority of these women, who are mostly just young girls, come from the countries once known as client states of the old Soviet Union, such as Albania and the Ukraine. In fact, the selling of girls for the sexual gratification of wealthy men has become a major export for many of the supposedly free nations from the former Soviet bloc.
Amazingly, many of these women are moved through our ally Israel. The reason Israel is a major center for these atrocities is that Israel has absolutely no laws against the sale or ownership of other humans. Now there is wonderful reason to continue our hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign aid to this moral back water of a country.
The main reason that these crimes can so easily occur is the demand by the world's corporations that there be few or no inspections at national borders and that, with corporations buying up governments just like ours at bargain prices, they own the decisions to investigate crimes and, of course, see no reason to investigate the very crimes they, themselves, are committing.
Now, of course, America is immune from these charges, aren't we. I mean, this is the country where politicians spend their entire careers shouting about their fairy tale world of "family values", right? Our government would immediately spring into action should even a hint of this crime appear within our borders, right?
Wrong, of course. Thai women were imported into the United States and forced into sexual slavery in New York, Houston and Toronto, according to stories in the LA Times, New York Times and Dallas Morning News.
How long will it take the corporate prostitutes in Washington, D.C., to even acknowledge these crimes? How many conservatives do you think are going to stand up in protest against these horrors against humanity? How many will demand hundreds of billions of dollars to fight these crimes against humanity? What is less than none?
Unless America wakes up to these violations against humanity and demands action from the blow hards in office, nothing, whatsoever, will ever happen. Why? Because the victims do not fall within the parameters these vile people respect. These are young girls from foreign countries that don't contribute to American political coffers, nor are they related to anyone who owns enough property to matter to American politicians. If they were all Republican, Christian, wealthy wives and daughters of campaign contributors then this would be a problem of cosmic proportion. They aren't, so the problem is ignored.
These crimes against women are only the most extreme examples of the damage that is being done to people all over the world in the name of corporate profits. Add in the disease ridden fruit coming into America from countries which have little in the way of health and safety laws and food covered with the pesticides that America banned so Corporate America sold its stock to the same Third World countries now supplying us with our daily fruits and vegetables and grains.
Consider the effects that corrupt rulers the world over have regarding the financial health of your retirement and investments and, if the idiots who hate government safety nets have their way, your Social Security. Consider the damage another episode like the Hunt brothers attempt to corner the silver market would have on America if it were done by a nation or groups of nations. Finally, consider the costs of a simple computer virus invading the systems which control what will be the world's financial institution.
You, as an individual, have absolutely nothing to gain in a global economy. In fact, you will be the loser if you continue to listen to the lies and do not begin fighting the mutation of your world into a world corporation where the wealthy would rule through unlimited economic power. As in all things, it is your choice but your inaction will affect billions of people for centuries to come.
http://www.anotherperspective.org/advoc150.html
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July 3, 2005
Cemetery operator faces criminal probe
'Wall' keeps criminal, civil probes separate
By Jim Dooley, Advertiser Staff Writer
The state Attorney General's office is conducting a criminal investigation of the purchase and operation of the RightStar group of funeral and cemetery companies in Hawai'i, according to state officials and private attorneys familiar with the investigation.
The criminal probe is separate from a civil lawsuit filed last year by the Attorney General's office that accuses RightStar officials and four local lawyers, including former Gov. John Waihee, of mismanaging more than $20 million in RightStar funds held in trust for thousands of Hawai'i customers who purchased "pre-need" funeral services and cemetery plots.
RightStar owns and operates four cemeteries: Valley of the Temples on O'ahu, Maui Memorial Park on the Valley Isle, and Homelani and Kona Memorial Parks on the Big Island.
The company purchased the cemeteries and related mortuary and funeral plan trust assets in 2001, and the state licensed RightStar to operate them in November 2001.
William McCorriston, attorney for Waihee and the other three lawyers who acted as trustees of the RightStar customers' trust funds, said he does not believe his clients are targets of the criminal investigation.
"We have informed the Attorney General of irregularities and delinquencies which had concerned us," McCorriston said. "We believe our information was the genesis of their investigation."
Waihee could not be reached for comment.
Attorneys for RightStar officials and Vestin Mortgage Inc., a Las Vegas-based lender that financed RightStar's purchase of the companies and filed a mortgage foreclosure lawsuit against RightStar for failure to repay $34 million in loans, said their clients have done nothing wrong. They said company officials are cooperating in the criminal and civil probes conducted by the Attorney General.
State Attorney General Mark Bennett and Deputy Attorney General Lawrence Goya confirmed the criminal investigation but would not elaborate on details of the case.
Legal quagmire
RightStar's financial problems have spawned a welter of lawsuits in state and federal court here, and involved the companies and its officials in at least one other ongoing criminal investigation, according to court records.
Most of the civil cases center on how the companies and trustees managed trust-fund assets.
The trust funds contain money from cemetery plot and funeral plan buyers that is supposed to be held in trust for the customers until they die. The funds also contain money set aside for "perpetual care" of the cemeteries.
According to state figures, the value of the trust funds stood at $63.2 million when RightStar took control of them. A year later, the value dropped to $40 million.
The foreclosure lawsuit filed by Vestin Mortgage claims that RightStar defaulted on loans that were used to purchase the companies. A state judge handling that case has appointed an independent receiver, Guido Giacometti, to run the cemeteries and funeral businesses and protect the rights of customers while the competing claims from numerous parties are sorted out.
In his two most recent monthly reports filed with the court, Giacometti said the companies have a "critical need" for additional money and are attempting to develop new cemetery plots and sell new funeral plans to increase cash flow.
"We're doing OK — sales volumes are relatively consistent," Giacometti said. "We'd like them to be higher but we inherited a company that had not reinvested in itself. There are a limited number of cemetery plots available, so we're working toward development of future areas."
Consumers caught
Local resident John Quinores bought four burial plots for himself and his family at Valley of the Temples in the 1960s and said he's worried about his investment. After agreeing to buy the cemetery plots, Quinores later supplemented that purchase with "pre-need" plans designed to provide funeral services when he dies.
"I'm still paying," Quinores said. "I called the company a couple of months ago with some questions but the lady that answered was vague and defensive."
Giacometti said he has made customer service a top priority and also is dealing with a variety of other pressing issues, including satisfying a dozen consumer complaints filed with the state Regulated Industries Complaints Office. Also unresolved are numerous other complaints about RightStar's decision last year to sell burial plots and funeral services contracts at a discount to a company called Alternative Debt Portfolios.
That sale was an effort by previous RightStar management to raise funds, Giacometti said.
"About 2,100 cemetery plot contracts were sold, but some of the contracts had already been paid in full and should not have been included in the deal," Giacometti said. "There are also some questions about who is responsible for the funeral services that are included in some of the other contracts."
Giacometti said he's cooperating in state and federal tax investigations of RightStar as well as a separate FBI investigation of Funding Solutions Inc., a company in Stamford, Conn., to which RightStar turned for financial assistance in 2004.
RightStar "made a $250,000 payment to them in return for a loan commitment, but then never got the loan," Giacometti said.
When Giacometti asked the company for a refund, "we ran right into an FBI investigation," he said. "They are investigating Funding Solutions and principals of the company and we are cooperating in that investigation."
According to federal court records, Funding Solutions executives Leonard Kalish and Joel Pondelik were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney's office in New York City in January.
A call to the company for comment was returned by Kalish's New York attorney, Martin Adelman, who said only that Kalish "will answer any and all official inquiries (about RightStar) when they are made."
A right to foreclose
Hawai'i Circuit Judge Sabrina McKenna ruled last month and again Friday that Vestin had the right to foreclose on RightStar, with the companies to be sold "to a licensed and qualified buyer" who would protect "the interests of consumers."
Attorney Grant Kidani, attorney for Alternative Debt Portfolios, had asked McKenna to delay foreclosure proceedings for 120 days, arguing that documents filed in another RightStar-related lawsuit, now pending in federal court here, showed both Vestin and RightStar had "unclean hands." Their relationship should be examined more closely before foreclosure takes place, he said.
The other federal court suit, first filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware and now pending before Hawai'i Federal Judge Helen Gillmor, alleges that Waihee and three other local attorneys who acted as RightStar funeral plan trustees were part of a fraudulent conspiracy to "strip the assets" of RightStar.
The suit was filed against RightStar by Alderwoods (Hawai'i) Inc., which purchased the assets of the cemetery and mortuary business in a Delaware bankruptcy court sale and then resold it to RightStar in 2001.
Charges in the suit are based in part on allegations from David Jackson, a former financial controller of RightStar Hawaii Management, who charged that Waihee used his "political influence" to smooth the company's dealings with state regulators.
McCorriston, Waihee's attorney, said Jackson's allegations "are part of an effort to besmirch Waihee's and the other trustees' reputations. RightStar has gone belly-up, so instead they're pointing their guns at the trustees."
Candace Ito, executive officer of the state Cemetery and Funeral Trusts Program, also denied Jackson's allegations, saying that "RightStar did not receive any special treatment" from the state.
RightStar President John Dooley said Waihee "did nothing improper while representing the company in the licensing process. He used his abilities to assist a private business attain licensing in the state of Hawai'i in much the same way that other former governors have assisted businesses in the past."
RightStar attorney James Wagner added, "Jackson is a disgruntled former employee who was fired for incompetence."
Attempts to reach attorneys for Jackson and Alderwoods were unsuccessful.
Transfers questioned
The state has charged in its civil suit against RightStar that the company and the former trustees improperly removed about $20 million in trust fund assets in 2002, transferring the money to RightStar's operational accounts. The state said the transfers should only have been made after a full accounting of the finances of the cemeteries and trust funds had been completed and filed with the state. Such financial statements have yet to be filed by RightStar, according to court records.
The Attorney General's suit also charged that the trustees removed another $20 million in trust fund assets and improperly invested the money in a Nevada real estate venture called Vestin Fund II. That fund is managed by Vestin Mortgage, the same company that financed RightStar's purchase of the cemeteries and trust funds in the first place.
An independent expert, John Candon, has been appointed by the court in the Attorney General's civil lawsuit to examine the finances and activities of RightStar and the trust funds and to make sure the money is properly accounted for and protected.
Last year, the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission revealed that it was investigating Vestin Fund II. Vestin called the SEC probe an "informal inquiry" that appears to focus on its financial reporting to the SEC.
Vestin attorney Paul Alston said the investment has yielded a return of 9 percent interest per year and is probably one of the best investments the trustees made."
And Alston said at least some of the blame for RightStar's problems belongs with the state. "It appears that the trusts were mishandled under the state's proverbial nose, and it is only because of Vestin's complaints ... that the state has stirred to action," Alston said in a letter to Judge McKenna.
In late May, state Deputy Attorney General James Paige said in a letter to Judge McKenna that the state had attempted unsuccessfully to recover $20 million in RightStar trust money from Vestin Fund II.
Under the terms of the investment, Paige said, the fund can give back no more than 10 percent of an investment per year. At that rate, the consumer trust funds that the state wants back will not be fully recovered "until approximately the year 2015," Paige wrote.
Class-action suit filed
Last week, a class-action lawsuit was added to the legal woes besetting RightStar. One plaintiff in the suit, Yahnina Hackney, repeated claims reported earlier by The Advertiser that RightStar improperly canceled her stepmother's funeral services contract after the elderly woman became sick and failed to make monthly payments to the company.
The company said in response that the cancellation was made by previous owners of the company and some of the disputed funds are still being held in trust.
Hackney said when her stepmother died, there was no money to pay for her burial. "I had to ask the state to do it," she said. "It was very sad. She was cremated. She didn't want that. I have her ashes at home."
She said she "would like to see everybody wake up and take a look at this issue. It's very important and it's something we all will have to face."
Reach Jim Dooley at 535-2447 or jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com.
For more, GO TO > > > Vampires in the Cemetery
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September 19, 2004
New mood kills Kona project
By Kevin Dayton, Advertiser Big Island Bureau
KAILUA, Kona, Hawai'i — Developers have been pushing for new projects along the crowded Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway north of Kailua, and last week the community pushed back.
A crowd of more than 180 people pressured the Big Island County Council to kill a major proposed commercial and hotel development there. They heckled supporters of the development, and finally convinced most of the council to vote to bury the project proposed by Clifto's Kona Coast LLC.
That angry crowd and the council vote may signal a sea change in the development atmosphere north of Kona at a time when the real estate market is sizzling and more projects are planned for the area.
John Ray, president of the Hawai'i Leeward Planning Conference, said major landowners watched with "a lot of apprehension" as the Clifto's project was vetoed by Big Island Mayor Harry Kim, and council members last week refused to override Kim's veto.
County Planning Director Chris Yuen said developers should be concerned. He said the handling of the project was a turning point for the county, with Kim refusing to approve Clifto's because it relied on still-tentative state plans to widen the highway.
The highway has been at capacity since 1998, and it isn't clear when the state will begin widening it near the airport. A widening project for Queen Ka'ahumanu closer to Kailua is scheduled to begin next year.
From now on, developers with plans that would increase the traffic on Queen Ka'ahumanu "are either going to have to wait, or build something that is going to help alleviate the situation," Yuen said.
Cliff M. Morris, the managing member of Clifto's, promised to put up $750,000 to pay for planning and other work on the Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway widening project to try to speed the project along to offer some relief from traffic jams.
He pledged to turn over a half-mile-long strip of choice beachfront property to the county for a new park, and promised to provide 78 affordable housing units as part of the project, which is twice the amount of affordable housing normally required.
That wasn't good enough for residents furious about the daily traffic jams on the highway. They worried the Clifto's development would dump even more cars on the commuter thoroughfare, and wanted nothing to do with the project.
"Just stop any more rezoning, stop any more construction, and let's just catch up with what we've got," Kailua View Estates resident Dan Olson told the council last week.
Project defeated
The council finally voted 5-4 against overriding Kim's veto of the project. Clifto's was seeking permission to put 390 apartments and condominiums, about 392,000 square feet of retail and commercial space and a 250-room airport hotel on 83 acres north of Kailua.
Morris estimated the total construction cost for the project would have been $160 million to $180 million.
Killing Clifto's hardly solves the traffic problem. Yuen estimated that landowners along the corridor from Kailua to the airport already have the zoning they need to build up to 1,500 new housing units, which would further clog the highway even if the council refused to grant any new rezoning requests.
More projects are on the way. One of the largest is Hiluhilu Development LLC, which is owned by Charles Schwab and local contractor Guy Lam, and is seeking permission to develop 725 acres mauka of the airport.
That project, now known as Palamanui, would include space for a long-sought new Kona campus for the University of Hawai'i, a golf course, 825 homes and about 120 hotel units, said Guido Giacometti, the owners' representative.
Closer to Kailua, the state is considering proposals to redevelop 350 acres in the Honokohau Harbor area, and the Queen Lili'uokalani Trust is also making plans to develop lands the trust owns in the area.
Giacometti said the Palamanui developers are well aware of the public concerns about traffic from Kailua to the airport, and said the existing zoning for the Palamanui property requires the developer to build a mauka-to-makai road from Mamalahoa Highway to Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway.
That new road should help, and Giacometti said the developer hopes the Palamanui project will be better received than Clifto's was.
Ray, who was a county council member in the 1990s, said studies done years ago warned that Kona was headed for major traffic and other problems, "but really, nothing happened" to head off the problems. Ray's organization now represents major Big Island landowners.
Pushing development
Ray doesn't blame the local government entirely because the county was in an economic slump at the time. That meant there was little county money available to cope with the looming infrastructure problems, and there was political pressure on the council to push new development to get the economy moving again.
"Instead of concentrating on catching up, we were concentrating on giving entitlements but falling further and further behind" on road and other public facilities improvements need to serve the new development, Ray said.
Now there is not nearly enough state, county or federal money available to solve the problem, Ray said. He contends the only way to catch up is to approve new developments, tapping the developers for money and other help, and combine those contributions with state and county resources to speed up the necessary highway and other improvements.
Without the new projects, Ray believes the county will never catch up.
The Kona crowd openly mocked Ray when he made those same points to the council, and observers such as Sierra Club spokesman David Frankel are skeptical.
"The development community always says if you allow more development to proceed, our problems will be solved," Frankel said. "But history shows that the more development we allow, the more infrastructure problems we face."
Frankel and Yuen both say the long-term solution is to require developers to build more affordable housing close to jobs so that working people don't need to commute long distances.
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August 20, 1997
State attorneys interview ex-worker
who alleges irregularities
By Bruce Dunford, Associated Press
A Bishop Estate official who says he was fired last year for raising questions about irregular and possibly illegal activities has been interviewed by state attorneys ordered by the governor to investigate the estate.
Bobby Harmon served for eight years as head of the estate's insurance programs and ultimately served as president of P&C Insurance Co., a for-profit subsidiary of the $10 billion charitable trust that supports Kamehameha Schools.
He said he questioned:
> An annual payment the estate made without accounting for why it was made;
< His salary for the profit-making organization being paid by the nonprofit trust in apparent violation of IRS rules;
> The company's legal work being parceled to certain lawyers.
Harmon met for 1-1/2 hours yesterday with Senior Deputy Attorney General Lawrence Goya and the attorney general's auditor, he said.
They expressed interest in obtaining a 50-page document he prepared detailing questionable and possibly illegal activities by Bishop Estate's trustees and top executives, Harmon said.
Bishop Estate, however, earlier obtained a Circuit Court injunction against the release of the document, claiming it contains confidential and proprietary information that should not be made public.
Harmon has also offered to share his papers with retired Circuit Judge Patrick Yim, who is also conducting an investigation into the management of Bishop Estate and Kamehameha Schools at the request of the probate court.
Harmon said he was fired in November after he refused to sign off on a required financial report involving the estate's contract with Marsh & McLennan Inc. as the estate's insurance broker.
He said was worried about a $200,000 annual flat fee superiors wanted him to pay to MMI because there was no accounting why it was being paid, Harmon said.
Harmon said he felt if he "looked the other way" as encouraged by his superiors, "I would be breaching my fiduciary duties to the organization."
Harmon also questioned why his salary was from the nonprofit trust when almost all his time was spent working for the for-profit P&C captive insurance company.
This appears to violate IRS rules against using tax-exempt trust funds to subsidize a profit-making company, he said.
It appeared that Bishop Estate attorney Nathan Aipa, Harmon's direct supervisor, and trustee Henry Peters wanted to maintain tight control over all insurance matters, including parceling out related legal work to selected attorneys, he said.
Estate spokeswoman Elisa Yadao has declined to comment on Harmon's allegations, but said they will be challenged in court.
Harmon's documents support his proposed settlement for what he claims was his wrongful termination by Bishop Estate. It seeks up to $1.8 million.
The use of trust funds to support Bishop Estate's various taxable subsidiaries was common, yet not reported on IRS forms as required, Harmon said.
http://starbulletin.com/97/08/20/news/index.html
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Guido Giacometti is expected to testify as to his relationships to Susan Tius; Sukamto Sia; Renton Nip; John Waihee; George Ariyoshi; Gil Tam; Robert Kihune; Micah Kane, Department of Hawaiian Homelands; Henry Peters; Richard Wong; Constance Lau; Diane Plotts; Louis Kau; Greg Chun; Jeffrey Stone, Ko Olina Partners; Judge Kevin Chang; Judge David Ezra; Judge Robert Faris; Kamehameha Investment Corp; Keahou Kona Resort Company; Guy Lam; Rockne Freitas; Charles Schwab; Hiluhilu Partners; Kazu Hayashida; Mark Souder; Peter Simmons; The Nature Conservancy; Faye Kurren; Peter T. Young, Robert K. Masuda, Dept. of Land & Natural Resources; Glenn Yasue, Hawaii State Parks Division; Bert Kobayashi, Jr.; Mark McConaghy, PricewaterhouseCoopers; Nathan Aipa; Colleen Wong; Louanne Kam; William Rosehill; Robert Katz; Matt Tsukazaki; Gensiro Kawamoto; Carol Asai-Sato; Paul Alston, Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing; CB Richard Ellis; Michael McKenzie, McKenzie Methane; Rocco Sansone, Marsh & McLennan Companies; Allan A. Smith; Steve Case; Grove Farm; Maui Planning Commission; Hawaii Land Use Commission; Colbert Matsumoto; Robert Herkes; Curtis Ching; Mary Lou Woo; J.C. Shannon, Steven Guttman; Judge Lloyd King; Michelle Tucker, Sterling & Tucker; James B. Nicholson; Carol Matsumoto; Volcano Art Center; David C. Farmer; Aloha Airlines; Hung Wo Ching; Dan Case; Jeffrey Case; Suzanne Case; James Cribley