Woo vs. Harmon - Witness Bill Mills

David C. Farmer, Successor-Trustee vs. Harmon

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

U.S. District Court For the District of Hawaii

—

DEFENDANT’S WITNESS

BILL MILLS

Bill Mills is principally a Hawaii-based investor in real estate. Mr. Mills, owns, or has owned, through his various companies, developments on Maui, Hawaii, Oahu, and the mainland. Among them: The Turtle Bay Hilton Golf & Tennis Resort, Maui Lani, Kahala Mandarin, and the Waikiki Galleria Tower in Waikiki. Mr. Mills is a member of the board of directors for Hawaiian Electric Industries, and Grace Pacific Corporation. He is a Trustee of Hawaii Pacific University, The Nature Conservancy, and St. Andrews Priory School. Mr. Mills is also a member of the board of governors for the Iolani School.

Bill Mills was the former CEO of Castle & Cooke, Inc.

Bill Mills has had numerous financial relationships with Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate.

* * * * *

NEW DISCOVERY (11-30-08):

THE BEST GOVERNMENT MONEY CAN BUY

* * * * *

NEW DISCOVERY (09/10/08):

August 17, 2007

Isle investors buying Mid Pac fuel chain

The purchase includes 36 of 51 Union 76 gas stations

By Jennifer Sudick, Star-Bulletin

A group of local investors led by First Hawaiian Bank Chairman Walter Dods Jr. is purchasing Mid Pac Petroleum LLC from a Singaporean investment firm.

Hawaii-based Koko'oha Investments Inc., formed this month by Dods and three other investors, will buy the petroleum distributor and marketer for $44 million from k1 Ventures Ltd. Mid Pac owns 36 of the 51 Union 76-branded gas stations in Hawaii. It is the second time control of the brand and the stations has changed hands in three years.

"It's very rare in Hawaii that a top-50 type company becomes available," Dods said in an interview. "I loved the fact that we were able to bring the company back home."

There will be "no disruption" to the company's 100 employees, he said.

The cash purchase, expected to close Sept. 1, includes Union 76 stations on Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island, with fuel-supply contracts for Hawaii's independently operated Union 76 stations. The deal also includes Mid Pac's trucking assets, marketing programs, and fueling terminals at Hilo and Kawaihae on the Big Island.

The former longtime First Hawaiian chief executive, who will become chairman of the company, is being joined by David Hulihee, president of Hawaii-based construction company Royal Contracting Company Ltd.; Bill Mills, chairman of Hawaii-based real estate investment company the Mills Group; and Jim Yates, who will serve as president and CEO of Mid Pac.

Yates is stepping down at the end of this month as president and CEO of local natural-gas supplier the Gas Co., where he worked for 12 years.

"This company has been really well run in the last three years since it was started up, so to some extent it will be business as usual," Yates said in an interview. "As compared to a foreign owner, we are just going to be able to offer more to the local community. I'm excited about it."

The investors will have an equal share in the company, Dods said, with no immediate plans for other purchases.

"We take a long-term approach," he said. "We want to build the company. We would love to use the company to buy additional energy-related vehicles over time."

K1 Ventures formed Mid Pac in 2004 -- its second foray into the Hawaii energy market. It acquired the Gas Co., now owned by New York-based Macquarie Infrastructure Co., in 2002.

Mid Pac was ranked as the state's 52nd-largest company with annual sales of $170 million last year in Hawaii Business Magazine's August issue.

Dods, who retired as CEO of First Hawaiian Bank and parent BancWest Corp. in 2004 after 16 years at the helm, teamed with Hulihee and Mills as part of a group of a dozen investors for a $30 million stake in Hawaiian Telcom Communications Inc. A Washington, D.C.-based private-equity firm, the Carlyle Group, acquired Verizon Communications Inc.'s Hawaii assets for $1.6 billion in May 2005, changing the company name from Verizon Hawaii to Hawaiian Telcom.

The three investors and longtime friends also have a majority ownership of Hawaii-based construction material supplier and contractor Grace Pacific Corp., Dods said.

http://starbulletin.com/2007/08/17/news/story09.html

~ ~ ~

NEW DISCOVERY (09/10/08):

May 6, 2006

Tesoro agrees to buy 4 gas stations
on Garden Island

By Dave Segal, Star-Bulletin

Kauai Petroleum Co. has agreed to sell its four company-owned gas stations, a storage facility at Nawiliwili Harbor and trucking operations to San Antonio-based Tesoro Corp., which operates Hawaii's largest refinery.

Kauai Petroleum, founded in 1948, is a supplier for Union 76. With the deal, Tesoro would be making its first entry into the Kauai market. The company has 33 branded stations on Oahu, Maui and the Big Island. Thirty of those are company operated and three are run by independent dealers.

"I'm glad we're being acquired by a major oil company," Kauai Petroleum General Manager Baltazar Manibog said yesterday. "Part of the reason why the owners wanted to sell is the margin on fuel as a (supplier) is diminishing. To keep up with the changes in the petroleum industry, you have to have more resources and deeper pockets, and we're just a small company."

Kauai Petroleum has nine full-time employees and nine part-timers, according to Manibog.

"They'll offer employment to our present employees they want to retain," he said.

Tesoro, which operates six refineries in the western United States and has more than 475 branded gas stations, said it was interested in Kauai Petroleum because it allows Tesoro to expand and capitalize on its operations in the state.

"Since ... Kauai is the fourth-largest fuel market in Hawaii and has the fastest-growing jet-fuel demand, we believe this acquisition will provide another strategic outlet for our gasoline and jet-fuel production from our (94,000-barrel-a-day) Kapolei facility," said Bruce Smith, chairman, president and chief executive of Tesoro.

Tesoro said it expects to complete its due-diligence review of Kauai Petroleum's assets within 30 days. The acquisition needs to be approved by Kauai Petroleum's three dozen shareholders before it can close.

Manibog said he was confident a majority of shareholders would approve the deal, and Tesoro said it expected the sale to close by the end of next month.

Kauai Petroleum has been hurt by the state gas-cap law that went into effect Sept. 1. The law linked the price of fuel in Hawaii to prices on the mainland and limited the margin that goes from the refinery to the service station.

However, state lawmakers voted this week to indefinitely suspend the gas cap law and allow gasoline companies to charge whatever the market will bear. Gov. Linda Lingle yesterday signed the legislation to suspend the cap, effective immediately.

"With the gas cap and all the changes in the petroleum industry, and the increased government regulations, the owners of the company decided that we should just exit the petroleum industry," Manibog said. "When the gas cap went into effect, I did lose some accounts. And when you lose accounts, your volume decreases."

http://starbulletin.com/2006/05/06/business/story02.html

~ ~ ~

December 9, 2000

Oaktree becomes sole Turtle Bay owner

By Andrew Gomes Advertiser Staff Writer

California-based investment firm Oaktree Capital Management LLC has assumed complete ownership of Turtle Bay Hilton Golf & Tennis Resort, and is continuing with a previously announced multimillion-dollar renovation.

Late last month, Oaktree settled a year-old lawsuit against local developer Bill Mills, who joined with Oaktree in 1998 to buy the North Shore resort, sell most of it and split the profits. Oaktree, which lent Mills $52 million for the acquisition, alleged in its suit that Mills received $2 million in kickbacks from the seller and a broker.

On Wednesday William Deuchar, the resort’s former court-appointed receiver, announced that a judge had accepted a settlement. Yesterday Oaktree confirmed that the settlement provided for the company to take over the 484-room hotel, golf course and undeveloped parts of the 1,100-acre property. Mills is no longer involved with the resort, the company said.

Other terms of the settlement, which was sealed by the court, were not disclosed. Neither Mills nor his attorney returned phone calls seeking comment....

For more on Oaktree Capital Management, see The Vultures in Liberty House

~ ~ ~

Bill Mills is expected to testify with regard to his business, social and personal relationships with the Linda Lingle, Gale Norton, Eric Gill, Local 5 Union, Maui Planning Commission, Judith Neustadter Fuqua, Ray Fuqua, Steven Guttman, Mary Lou Woo, Hawaii Land Use Commission, Lawrence Johnson, Gilbert Tam, Bank of Hawaii, Robert Kihune, Summit Communications, Sandwich Isles Communications, Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate, Yukio Takemoto, Paul Cathcart, Edwina Clarke, Robert Clarke, Hawaiian Electric Industries, Oswald Stender, Oceanic Cablevision, Dee Jay Mailer, Michael Chun, Dianne Plotts, Constance Lau, American Savings Bank, Hawaiian Insurance Companies, Zephyr Insurance Company, Victor Hau Li, Watnabe Ing & Kawashima, J. Douglas Ing, Ronald Libkuman, Henry Peters, Richard Wong, Jeffrey Stone, William S. Richardson, Rocco Sansone, Marsh & McLennan, Mert Chillingworth, Puna Chillingworth, Mark Polivka, Ron Poepoe, Cal Kawamoto, Duane Steel, Grace Pacific, Earl Anzai, Lyn Anzai, Linda Lingle, Mark Bennett, Turtle Bay Hilton Golf & Tennis Resort, Oaktree Capital Management, Michael Matsumoto, SSFM International, Cal Kawamoto, J.P. Schmidt, Rey Graulty, Wayne Metcalf, The Nature Conservancy, Wayne Minami, Judge Barry Kurren, Faye Watanabe Kurren, Alexander & Baldwin, Art Woolaway, Patty Woolaway, University of Hawaii, Ben Cayetano, John Waihee, George Ariyoshi, Renton Nip, Tokyo General Corp., Prudential, Jim Nabors, Franklin Tokioka, Colbert Matsumoto, Jeffrey Watanabe, Trinity Investments, Jon Miho, Apollo Advisors, Dan Inouye, Dan Akaka, Michael Marsh, Dan Case, Steve Case, Jeffrey Case, James Nicholson, David C. Farmer, First Hawaiian Bank, Walter Dods, Oswald Stender, and others yet to be named upon discovery.