Woo vs. Harmon - Witness Alan J. Ma

Gerson & Hieneman, Attorneys at Law
American Savings Bank Tower
1001 Bishop St., Ste 700
Honolulu, HI 96813

Alan J. Ma was the attorney, along with Steven Guttman, for Mary Lou Woo in Defendant’s Bankruptcy Case.

NEW DISCOVERY (07-18-08): Undisclosed professional conflicts of interests with Defendant’s attorney, Bradley Tamm, and attorneys representing parties involved in Harmon’s RICO lawsuit and EQ2048; breach of attorney-client privilege confidentiality rules:

Current members of the Bankruptcy Mediation Panel are listed below. Applications for appointment to the panel will be accepted on a continuing basis.
Ryther L. Barbin, Esq. Louis L. C. Chang, Esq. Robert E. Chapman, Esq. Chuck C. Choi, Esq. Harrison P. Chung, Esq. Charles W. Crumpton, Esq. Nicholas C. Dreher, Esq. James N. Duca, Esq. Don Jeffrey Gelber, Esq. Steven Guttman, Esq. Owen H. Hellekson, Jr., Esq.	Simon Klevansky, Esq. Ronald K. Kotoshirodo, Esq. Colin K. Kurata, Esq. Remy Luria, Esq. Alan J. Ma, Esq. Michael F. Nauyokas, Esq. William J. Plum, Esq. Bradley Tamm, Esq. Susan Tius, Esq. James A. Wagner, Esq. Thomas J. Wong, Esq.
LBR 9019-2. ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION (a) Purpose and Scope. To facilitate the voluntary resolution of adversary proceedings and contested matters, the Bankruptcy Court is authorized to establish guidelines for court-sponsored Bankruptcy Alternative Dispute Resolution (“BDR”) procedures. This rule does not preclude parties from participating in the alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) procedures implemented under LR 16.11 or in any other ADR process. (b) Program Administration. (1) Bankruptcy Mediation Committee. The court may establish a Bankruptcy Mediation Committee to formulate guidelines for BDR procedures and the selection, training and evaluation of individuals to serve on a Mediator Panel. (2) BDR Administrator. The court may appoint a BDR Administrator to administer the BDR program and to serve as liaison between the court and the Bankruptcy Mediation Committee. (3) Bankruptcy Mediator Panel. The BDR Administrator shall publish and maintain a list of qualified individuals approved by the court to serve as members of a Bankruptcy Mediator Panel. Individuals selected to serve on the panel may be required to provide a minimum amount of service without compensation. (c) Confidentiality. (1) Except as otherwise provided by this rule or applicable law, any and all communications made in connection with any mediation under this rule shall be subject to Rule 408 of the Federal Rules of Evidence. (2) Mediators and parties shall not communicate with the court about the substance of any position, offer or other matter in the mediation without the consent of all parties, unless such disclosure is required to enforce a settlement agreement or to provide evidence in an attorney disciplinary proceeding, but only to the extent required to accomplish that purpose. (d) Immunity of Mediators. All persons serving as mediators under this rule shall be deemed to be performing quasi-judicial functions and shall be entitled to all of the privileges, immunities and protections that the applicable law accords to persons serving in such capacity.
12/19/2002

03/30/02

Letter from Harmon to Bradley Tamm re Ch 7 Case 99-04339

www.kycbs.net/Claim-Tamm-3-30-2.htm

www.kycbs.net/Claims-Branch-Dunn-Tamm.htm

04/06/02

Fax from Harmon’s attorney, Bradley Tamm, to Steven Guttman, Matt Tsukazaki, and Susan Tius requesting that these parties “SHOULD ALL COOPERATE IN EXCHANGING SUCH INFORMATION FOR OUR MUTUAL BENEFIT AND THE PRESERVATION OF OUR CARRIER’S INTERESTS.” This is indisputable evidence of violation of attorney-client privilege and conspiracy to commit fraud.

www.kycbs.net/Claim-Tamm-4-6-2.pdf

NEW DISCOVERY (11-20-07): Steven Guttman and Alan Ma are attorneys for Grayline Hawaii in their long-running bankruptcy case, with relationships to Kamehameha Schools’ Trustee J. Douglas Ing, and CEO Dee Jay Mailer:

In the Matter of the Application of GRAY LINE HAWAI`I, LTD. or Permanent Approval to Bifurcate Its Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity to Operate in the Over-25 Passenger Classifications on the Islands Maui, Hawaii, and Kauai to Polynesian Adventure Tours, Inc

It's been almost 10 years since Sukamto Sia, the high-rolling former Honolulu bank owner and real estate dealer, filed a $300 million personal bankruptcy case — and it still hasn't been resolved.

Sia's case is not the oldest bankruptcy pending in Hawai'i. A computer search of court dockets showed that there are 22 open cases filed between 1992 and 2000, involving hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid debts.

Several of the bankruptcies generated financial and social shockwaves when they were filed. Sia's case was notable because of his flamboyant lifestyle and the related financial collapse of the Bank of Honolulu.

As they drag out there is "less money ... to pay creditors," bankruptcy attorney Dawn Smith said. "Usually there are administrative expenses that have to be paid to attorneys, accountants, appraisers and so forth."

Those expenditures can result in recovery of money owed to the bankrupt estate and later distributed to creditors, but Smith noted that for creditors "waiting years and years for payment means they've lost the use of that money and interest it could have been earning."

The oldest active case is the 1992 Hamakua Sugar bankruptcy, in which one of the largest sugar plantations in Hawai'i closed its doors, throwing some 700 employees out of work and idling cultivation of some 35,000 acres of land on the Big Island. The bankruptcy case was first closed in 1999 but reopened in 2004 to deal with a $36,000 fuel rebate apparently owed to the bankrupt estate. That collection issue is unresolved.

According to paperwork filed when the case was reopened, even if the money is collected, it won't come close to paying all the bills in the case.

"The total amount of unpaid administrative (expenses) in this case is $1.2 million," the Office of the U.S. Trustee reported. "There are over 1,200 administrative claimants comprised of government agencies, former employees, landlords, professionals, and others."

The sisters were convicted in 2002 of federal money-laundering and tax charges connected to Marlene Lindsey's bankruptcy case. The bankruptcy remains open while Lokelani Lindsey, who once collected $1 million per year from the Bishop Estate and was one of the most powerful and controversial women in Hawai'i, makes $300 monthly restitution payments to her sister's bankrupt estate.

As of July 31, she had managed to pay $5,000 of the $35,000 she was ordered to repay in 2002.

Other cases include that of Mahalo Air, the startup interisland air carrier that launched service here in 1993 and shut its doors with a 1997 bankruptcy filing that is still active.

The financial failure of Gray Line Hawaii Ltd., the state's third-largest tour bus company, which shut its doors in 1997, is also generating paperwork in Bankruptcy Court.

In the Sia case, a lot has happened to the Indonesian-born businessman since he filed the bankruptcy action in 1998, listing among his debts tens of millions of dollars owed to gambling casinos in Las Vegas, London and Asia.

He was convicted in 2002 of bank and bankruptcy fraud related to the financial collapse and federal takeover of the Bank of Honolulu. He served three years in federal prison and was deported and forbidden ever to return to the United States.

Just a few months ago, he married Kelly Randall, who was his co-defendant in the fraud case, in a lavish wedding at the Hotel de Paris in Monaco.

A few friends from Honolulu attended the July nuptials, including state Senate vice president Donna Mercado Kim and Waikiki's "Ambassador of Aloha," entertainer Danny Kaleikini, according to news accounts of the event.

Attempts to reach Kim, Kaleikini and Linda Wong, another Honolulu friend of Sia's who attended the Monaco wedding, were unsuccessful.

Sia and Randall could not be reached. Sia's local bankruptcy attorney, Noah Fiddler, did not return telephone calls for comment.

Sia still owes more than $200 million to creditors around the world. Randall owes more than $1 million because of a series of transfers of assets Sia made to her, according to documents in the case.

"I don't doubt there are still millions dollars out there which were never found," said Paul Alston, local attorney for an Asian bank owed more than $4 million.

The largest single creditor in the case is CommerzBank (Southeast Asia), which is owed some $41 million, according to case records.

According to accounts of the wedding published in two Singapore-based magazines, it was an exclusive and expensive affair.

Guido Giacometti, the court-appointed private trustee in charge of the Sia bankruptcy case, said he believes it will be closed in the next few months.

The Office of the U.S. Trustee, an arm of the Justice Department that oversees the administration of bankruptcy cases, stresses the need to close cases as quickly as possible, Giacometti said.

"We stay in close touch with the office," Giacometti said. "There are cases like this one which stretch out over years and I think the U.S. Trustee's office understands that."

He added: "This was a very complex case with international aspects and with connections to criminal proceedings. Next year it will be 10 years since the case was filed and I'm as anxious to close it as anyone else involved."

Carol Muranaka, assistant U.S. trustee in charge of the Hawai'i office, declined comment, referring questions to Steven Katzman, head of the U.S. Trustee's regional office in San Diego.

Katzman, who oversees bankruptcy administration in Southern California, Hawai'i, Guam and Saipan, was traveling and could not be reached for comment.

The instant case involves the interpretation of a corpus distribution provision in a trust (the trust) created under the last will and testament of Samuel Mills Damon. Petitioner-appellant Michael E. Haig (M. Haig) and four groups of respondents-appellants [hereinafter, collectively, Appellants], specifically identified infra, appeal from the June 21, 2002 amended judgment of the Circuit Court of the First Circuit, the Honorable Colleen K. Hirai presiding, entered pursuant to Hawai`i Probate Rules (HPR) Rule 34 (2003) and Hawai`i Rules of Civil Procedure (HRCP) Rule 54 (2003). Essentially, Appellants seek review of the circuit court's May 24, 2000 findings of fact (FOF), conclusions of law (COL), and order with respect to a petition for interpretation, discussed more fully infra. The circuit court determined that, for purposes of distribution of the corpus upon the termination of the trust, the stirpital root is set at the level of Damon's children, and, thus, the corpus is to be divided into two equal shares, representing Damon's two deceased children, both of whom left surviving issue, with the descendants of Damon's children taking per stirpes.

On appeal, Appellants essentially contend that the circuit court erred in setting the stirpital root at the level of Damon's children. Specifically, M. Haig and three of the four groups of respondents-appellants maintain that the stirpital root should be set at the level of Damon's great-grandchildren, and the remaining group of respondents-appellants maintain that the stirpital root should be set at the level of Damon's grandchildren.

For the reasons discussed more fully infra, we hold that Appellants' contentions lack merit. Accordingly, we affirm the circuit court's June 21, 2002 amended judgment....

Based on the foregoing, we affirm the circuit court's June 21, 2002 amended judgment in favor of Appellees.

Carroll S. Taylor,
Kimo C. Leong, and
Gregory W. K. Chee (of
Taylor, Leong & Chee),
for petitioner-appellant
Michael E. Haig

Daniel H. Case, Steven L.
Rinesmith, Frank T.
Kanemitsu, and Cathy L.
Takase (of Case Bigelow &
Lombardi) and Robert E.
Rowland (of Mancini,
Rowland & Welch), for
respondents-appellants
Harriet D. Baldwin, Peter
D. Baldwin, Bennet M.
Baldwin, Katherine B.
Achaval, Frances D. Holt,
Daniel F. Holt, Allison H.
Gendreau, and Melanie F. H.
Bostock

James H. Wright, for
respondents-appellants
Brendan Damon Mesker and
John P. Damon

Anthony S. Chan and
Shawn B. Thompson (of Thompson
& Chan) for respondents-appellees
Heidi Ann Snow, Julia Ann Snow,
and Frank Edward Snow

Warren Price, III, Sharon R.
Himeno, Robert A. Marks, and
Robert M. Kohn (of Price Okamoto
Himeno & Lum), William H.
Soskin, pro hac vice, and
Scott N. Carter, pro hac vice,
for respondents-appellees Sharon
Damon, Siddhartha Damon, and
Shawnna Sorenson

Mervyn S. Gerson, Alan J. Ma,
Bruce D. Hieneman, and Kristie
K. Cruz Chang (of Gerson &
Hieneman), for respondents-
appellees Samuel E. Damon,
Samuel Renny Damon, Pia Damon
Spee, Julio Damon Spee, Miles
Samuel Spee, and Philip Edward
Spee

J. Thomas Van Winkle, Katherine
G. Leonard, and Eric S. T. Yong
(of Carlsmith Ball), for trustees/
respondents-appellees David M.
Haig, Fred C. Weyand, Paul Mullin
Ganley, and Walter A. Dods, Jr.