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)
United States District Court, District of Hawaii
Judges: David A. Ezra; Kevin S. Chang
~ ~ ~
DEFENDANT’S WITNESS
ROCCO SANSONE, CPCU
Marsh & McLennan
745 Fort Street
Honolulu, HI 96813
Fax: 808-585-3510
Rocco Sansone, Sr. Vice President, Marsh & McLennan Companies, is the insurance broker for Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate and P&C Insurance Company.
~ ~ ~
NEW DISCOVERY (11-24-08): New Exhibit: “EQ 2048 - Deposition of Lokelani Lindsey taken on November 4 & 9, 1999". This document provides clear evidence that J. Douglas Ing had multiple conflicts-of-interest in this case and, since he was not a named Defendant in my RICO lawsuit against the former Kamehameha Schools’ Trustees, he was not a legitimate signatory to the Settlement Agreement: Furthermore, since the Settlement Agreement was NOT SIGNED by any of the five Trustees actually named as Defendants, the Settlement Agreement was not legal or valid. (See Exhibit A)
http://www.kycbs.net/Lindsey-docs-Vol-1-p1-4.pdf
http://www.kycbs.net/Lindsey-docs-Vol-1.pdf
~ ~ ~
NEW UPDATE (09-07-08):
EARL I. ANZAI
Attorney General of Hawaii
DOROTHY D. SELLERS
HUGH R. JONES
Deputy Attorneys General
425 Queen Street
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
Attorneys for the Beneficiaries
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE FIRST CIRCUIT
STATE OF HAWAII
In the Matter of the Estate
of
BERNICE P. BISHOP,
Deceased.
EQUITY NO. 2048 KSCC
~ ~ ~
REPORT OF ATTORNEY GENERAL CONCERNING MAY 7, 1999 ORDER
The May 7, 1999 order regarding orders to show cause requires the former trustees immediately to resign offices and directorships in the trust’s subsidiary and affiliated organizations... P&C Insurance Company, Inc., is a captive insurance company, the sole stock holder which is Pauahi Holdings Inc.
The Attorney General respectfully invites the court’s attention to the annual report publicly filed on March 28, 2000 by P&C (Ex. 1). The annual report lists Henry H. Peters as a director. The Attorney General is unable to determine whether the listing is incorrect; or whether Peters remains a director in violation of court order. The Attorney General’s several inquiries of the trust concerning this matter remain unanswered despite the passage of three months (Ex. 2).
DATED: Honolulu, Hawaii, May 5, 2000
Respectfully submitted,
<s> DOROTHY SELLERS
Deputy Attorney General
~ ~ ~
DECLARATION OF DOROTHY SELLERS
DOROTHY SELLERS hereby states:
1. I am a deputy attorney general, and I am familiar with the case records and files in Hawaii First Circuit Court Equity No. 2048 going back to approximately August 1997.
2. I have personal knowledge of the facts contained in this declaration and am competent to testify to them.
3. Exhibit 1 is a true and correct copy of the annual report of P&C Insurance Company for the year ending Dec. 31, 1999, filed in late March 2000.
4, Exhibit 2 is a true and correct letter of my February 15, 2000 letter to counsel for the trust asking for verification that Henry Peters had resigned from P&C and the effective date of the resignation. I have never received a response to that letter.
5. On March 13, 2000, deputy attorney general Hugh Jones wrote trustee Libkuman (with a copy to general counsel Colleen Wong) about a number of matters. The final two paragraphs of that letter are:
Finally, we also requested some time ago copies of Henry Peters’ letters of resignation from directorships and ex officio positions, and specifically from P&C Insurance Company. Although the resignation letters of the other trustees were filed with the Court, Peters’ were not.
Please respond to these requests before March 31, 2000. Thank you.
I DECLARE UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY THAT THE FOREGOING IS TRUE AND CORRECT.
DATED: Honolulu, Hawaii, May 5, 2000
www.kycbs.net/Doc-EQ2048-PC-Peters-5-5-0.pdf
See also:
www.kycbs.net/PC-PriceWaterhouse-8-9-94.pdf
www.kycbs.net/PC-Arms-Length-Guide-10-1-94.pdf
www.kycbs.net/Doc-EQ2048-Mediation-Order-3-9-0.pdf
www.kycbs.net/KSBE-INTERROGATORIES.htm
www.kycbs.net/RICO-In-Paradise.htm
~ ~ ~
August 27, 2008
VIA fax: 808-529-7177 &
e-mail: sguttman@kdubm.com
David C. Farmer, Esq.
Office of the United States Trustee
c/o Steven Guttman, Esq., Kessner Duca Umebayashi, et al.
220 S. King Street, Floor 10
Honolulu, HI 96813
Re: CV05-00030 - David C. Farmer, Trustee vs. Bobby N. Harmon
Exhibit: “Marsh & McLennan: The Marsh Birds”
Witnesses: Mark Bennett; Lawrence Reifurth; J.P. Schmidt; Rocco Sansone, etc.
Dear Mr. Farmer & Mr. Guttman:
Due to the new discovery of important FACTS related to this case, I am updating the information for the subject Exhibit and witnesses, which you will find on-line at:
http://www.kycbs.net/MarshBirds.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Bennett-Mark.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Reifurth-Lawrence.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Schmidt-JP.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Sansone-Rocco.htm
These facts clearly show that there are numerous conflicting professional, financial and political relationships between entities involved in this case which cannot be dismissed as being merely “phantom dots”, “conspiracy theories”, “political opinions”, or “protected subject matter”.
As I have previously advised, I intend to file a MOTION TO REOPEN this case unless you are willing to try to resolve this matter NOW through voluntary NEGOTIATION or, as an alternative, through non-binding MEDIATION.
If you are not open to either of these alternatives, then please let me know immediately if you intend to file any Objections to my reopening this case.
Very truly yours,
Bobby N. Harmon, CPCU, ARM
cc: United States Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey
E-mail: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
Carol Muranaka, Assistant U.S. Trustee, Office of the United States Trustee
Fax: 808-522-8156 & E-mail: ustp.region15@usdoj.gov
Governor Linda Lingle, State of Hawaii, Fax: (808) 586-0006
Mark Bennett, Attorney General, State of Hawaii, Fax: (808) 586-1239
Hugh Jones, Deputy Attorney General, State of Hawaii, Fax: (808) 586-1477
Lawrence Reifurth, Director, Dept. of Commerce & Consumer Affairs
Fax: (808) 586-2640
Jeffrey P. Schmidt, Hawaii Insurance Commissioner, Fax: (808) 586-2806
Ed Kubo, U.S. Attorney, Hawaii, Fax: (808) 541-2958
Charles H. Hurd, President, The Mediation Center of the Pacific
Fax: (808) 538-1454 & Email: mcp@mediatehawaii.org
Website: http://www.mediatehawaii.org/
Keith W. Hunter, President & CEO, Hawaii Dispute Prevention & Resolution
Fax: (808) 537-1377 & E-mail: www.dprhawaii.com/Contact.aspx
Website: www.dprhawaii.com
Sheryl L. Nicholson, President, ACLU of Hawaii
Fax: 808-522-5909 & E-mail: office@acluhawaii.org
Website: www.acluhawaii.org
Janet L. Kamerman, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Email: HONOLULU@FBI.GOV
Judge Robert Faris, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, State of Hawaii
Fax: 808-522-8120 & Email: hib@hib.uscourts.gov
Judge David A. Ezra, U.S. District Court, State of Hawaii
Fax: 808-541-3575 & Email: theresa_lam@hid.uscourts.gov
Judge Kevin Chang, U.S. District Court, State of Hawaii
Fax: 808-541-1181 & Email: sa@hid.uscourts.gov
Judge Barry Kurren, U.S. District Court, State of Hawaii
Fax: 808-541-1181 & Email: richlyn_young@hid.uscourts.gov
Steven Katzman, American Arbitration Association, Fax: (619) 557-5339
Dee Jay Mailer, CEO, Kamehameha Schools, Fax: (808) 541-5305
James Cribley, President, P&C Insurance Co., Fax: (808) 523-1888
Nathan Aipa, Esq., Pitluck Kido Stone & Aipa, LLP, Fax: (808) 545-4015
Matt Tsukazaki, Esq., Torkildson Katz... (Attorney for Kamehameha Schools)
Fax: (808) 523-6001
James Wriston, Jr., Esq., Ashford & Wriston, jwriston@awlaw.com
Robert Bruce Graham, Jr., Esq., Ashford & Wriston, bgraham@awlaw.com
Rocco Sansone, V.P., Marsh & McLennan, Fax: (808) 585-3510
Jeffrey Sia, Esq., Ayabe, Chong... (Attorney for P&C Insurance Co.)
Fax: (808) 586-2806
Marion Higa, Hawaii State Auditor, Fax: (808) 587-0830
Roy Hughes, Esq., Hughes & Taosaka
Fax: (808) 521-7489 and E-Mail: hthughes@hawaii.rr.com
Valerie U. Katz, CPCU, ARM, VP, Claims, Island Insurance Co.
Fax: (808) 275-8222 & E-Mail: clmrpt@islandinsurance.com
James Kawashima, Esq., Kawashima Lorusso & Tom LLP, Fax (808) 544-8399
Thomas Kaulukukui and Patrick Yim, Trustees, Queen Liliuokalani Trust
Fax (808) 203-6151
Stuart Ho, President, Waialae Country Club, Fax: (808) 734-4791
Peter K. Hanashiro, Partner, KMH LLP, E-mail: phanashiro@kmhllp.com
Dennis Tsuhako, CPA, Fax: (808) 531-3433
John English, American Arbitration Association, Email: EnglishJ@adr.org
View this page on-line at:
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Farmer-8-27-8.htm
View archives of the original web-page at:
~ ~ ~
August 21, 2008
VIA fax @ (808) 586-1239
and e-mail: hawaiiag@hawaii.gov
Mark Bennett, Attorney General
State of Hawaii
425 Queen Street
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
RE: CV05-00030 - Office of the United States Trustee vs Bobby N. Harmon
Request for Criminal Investigation into Alleged Racketeering Activities
Marsh & McLennan, Inc., Chubb Group, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Kamehameha Schools, Prudential, Zurich Financial and others; and
Request for Enforcement of Hawaii Revised Statutes Vol. 13, Chap. 634F
Dear Attorney General Bennett:
This is to inform you that I have not received an acknowledgment of, or response to, my letter you dated August 1, 2007, regarding the referenced matter. A copy of this letter, and related information, can be found on the Internet at:
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Hawaii-AG-8-1-7.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Claims-Branch-Attorney-General.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Confessions.htm
Since this information is necessary in order for the subject case to be finally closed, I ask that you provide to me, as soon as possible, an accounting of the settlement recovered for Kamehameha Schools and P&C Insurance Co., Inc. for the fraudulent overcharges which I reported beginning in November, 1996, and which may be continuing to this date.
Also, as a tax-payer, I ask that you provide to me. and to the general public, complete details– including reimbursement of premiums, damages for wrongfully denied claims, penalties, etc.– regarding the settlement negotiations and monies received which involved any and all claims made by the State of Hawaii against the insurance agents, brokers and carriers involved in your investigations and settlement negotiations.
Your immediate response is respectfully requested.
Very truly yours,
Bobby N. Harmon, CPCU, ARM
cc: Hugh Jones, Dorothy Sellers, and Lawrence Goya,
Office of the Attorney General, c/o Hugh Jones (hugh.r.jones@hawaii.gov)
Michael B. Mukasey, U.S. Attorney General (AskDOJ@usdoj.gov)
Ed Kubo, U.S. Attorney, Hawaii (fax: 808-541-2958)
Janet L. Kamerman, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Email: HONOLULU@FBI.GOV
Laurence Reifurth, Director, Dept. of Commerce & Consumer Affairs
(fax: 808-586-2640)
Jeffrey P. Schmidt, Hawaii Insurance Commissioner (fax: 808-586-2806)
Linda Lingle, Governor, State of Hawaii (fax: 808-586-0006)
Carol Muranaka, Office of the U.S. Trustee (ustp.region15@usdoj.gov)
David C. Farmer, Trustee. (fax: 808-529-8642)
James B. Nicholson, Trustee (jamesbnicholson@aol.com)
Steven Guttman, Esq, Kessner Duca.... (sguttman@kdubm.com)
Judge Robert Faris, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, State of Hawaii
Fax: 808-522-8120 & Email: hib@hib.uscourts.gov
Judge David A. Ezra, U.S. District Court, State of Hawaii
Fax: 808-541-3575 & Email: theresa_lam@hid.uscourts.gov
Judge Kevin Chang, U.S. District Court, State of Hawaii
Fax: 808-541-1181 & Email: sa@hid.uscourts.gov
Judge Barry Kurren, U.S. District Court, State of Hawaii
Fax: 808-541-1181 & Email: richlyn_young@hid.uscourts.gov
Steven Katzman, American Arbitration Association
Fax: (619) 557-5339
Charles H. Hurd, President, The Mediation Center of the Pacific
Fax: (808) 538-1454 & Email: mcp@mediatehawaii.org
Website: http://www.mediatehawaii.org/
Keith W. Hunter, President & CEO, Hawaii Dispute Prevention & Resolution
Fax: (808) 537-1377 & E-mail: www.dprhawaii.com/Contact.aspx
Website: www.dprhawaii.com
Sheryl L. Nicholson, President, ACLU of Hawaii
Fax: 808-522-5909 & E-mail: office@acluhawaii.org
Dee Jay Mailer, CEO, Kamehameha Schools
Fax: (808) 541-5305
James Cribley, President, P&C Insurance Co.
Fax: (808) 523-1888
Nathan Aipa, Esq., Pitluck Kido Stone & Aipa, LLP
Fax: (808) 545-4015
Matt Tsukazaki, Esq., Torkildson Katz... (Attorney for Kamehameha Schools)
Fax: (808) 523-6001
James Wriston, Jr., Esq., Ashford & Wriston
Robert Bruce Graham, Jr., Esq., Ashford & Wriston
Rocco Sansone, V.P., Marsh & McLennan
Fax: (808) 585-3510
Jeffrey Sia, Esq., Ayabe, Chong... (Attorney for P&C Insurance Co.)
Fax: (808) 586-2806
Marion Higa, Hawaii State Auditor
Fax: (808) 587-0830
Roy Hughes, Esq., Hughes & Taosaka
Fax: (808) 521-7489 and E-Mail: hthughes@hawaii.rr.com
Valerie U. Katz, CPCU, ARM, VP, Claims, Island Insurance Co.
Fax: (808) 275-8222 & E-Mail: clmrpt@islandinsurance.com
James Kawashima, Esq., Kawashima Lorusso & Tom LLP
Fax (808) 544-8399
Thomas Kaulukukui and Patrick Yim, Trustees, Queen Liliuokalani Trust
Fax (808) 203-6151
Thomas Fitton, Judicial Watch, www.judicialwatch.org (info@judicialwatch.org)
Public Citizen, www.cleanupwashington.org (cleanupwashington@citizen.org)
Rocco Sansone, VP, Marsh & McLennan, Hawaii (fax: 808-585-3510)
Robin Campaniano, AIG Hawaii Insurance Co. (aighi001@aighawaii.com)
Margery Bronster, Esq. (info@bchlaw.net)
Judith Neustadter Fuqua, Esq., Arbitrator (Judy@tiki.net)
William K. Slate II, President/CEO, American Arbitration Association (Websitemail@adr.org)
John D. Finnegan, CEO, The Chubb Corporation (info@chubb.com)
Lissa H. Andrews, Rush Moore LLP, Atty for Federal Insurance Co. (landrews@rehawaii.com)
Susan Tius, Esq., Rush Moore LLP (Stius@rmhawaii.com)
Matt A. Tsukazaki, Esq., Torkildson Katz ... (mat@torkildson.com)
Paul Alston, Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing (palston@ahfi.com)
James Duca, Esq. (jduca@kdubm.com)
Bradley Tamm, Esq. (btamm@hawaii.rr.com)
Greg Dunn (gregdunn1@verizon.net)
Lyn Flanigan Anzai, Hawaii State Bar Association (lanzai@hsba.org)
Jeffrey N. Watanabe, Esq., Watanabe Ing... (jwatanabe@wik.com)
J. Arthur Rath (imua@spamarrest.com)
Randall Roth (rroth@hawaii.edu)
Judge Samuel P. King (leslie_sai@hid.uscourts.gov)
J.C. Shannon (hapa1234@aol.com)
V.K. Durham, www.theantechamber.net/#AnchorVK (Vkdtdht@pionet.net)
Eric Shine, www.martiallaw911.com (civilrights911@socal.rr.com)
Marshall Chriswell (mc@whistleblowers.org)
Others...
~ ~ ~
NEW DISCOVERY (07-09-08):
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK,
By Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General of
the State of New York, Plaintiff
vs.
AON CORPORATION, Defendant
http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2005/mar/complaint.pdf
and
http://www.kycbs.net/Spitzer-vs-Aon.pdf
~ ~ ~NEW DISCOVERY (06-02-08):
June 2, 2008
Marsh & McLennan CFO Matthew Bartley stepping down
Associated Press
NEW YORK - Insurance brokerage Marsh & McLennan Cos. said Monday its executive vice president and chief financial officer, Matthew Bartley, is leaving the company.
Marsh & McLennan is in the process of searching for his replacement. Bartley, who has served as CFO since 2006, will remain with the company until a successor is appointed.
~ ~ ~
June 11, 2007
Marsh Names New CFO
Mark C. McGivney joins the insurance broker
from the Hanover Insurance Group.
Stephen Taub, CFO.com
Marsh Inc. named Mark C. McGivney its new chief financial officer.
McGivney joins the insurance broker from the Hanover Insurance Group, where he was senior vice president of finance, corporate treasurer and CFO for the company's property/casualty business.
"In addition to his strong financial background, Mark brings both insurance market experience and a strategic skill set that will enhance finance support for Marsh's accelerating growth and operational transformation," said Matthew Bartley, CFO for Marsh's parent company, MMC, in a statement.
"He brings us a broad array of experience in all areas of finance, including treasury, mergers and acquisitions, rating agency relationships, internal audit and Sarbanes-Oxley," said Brian Storms, chairman and chief executive officer of Marsh, in a statement. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarbanes-Oxley_Act )
McGivney joined The Hanover in 1997 as vice president of mergers and acquisitions. Prior to that, he worked in investment banking in the financial institutions sector at Merrill Lynch and Salomon Brothers. He was also a CPA with Price Waterhouse earlier in his career.
Back in February 2005, Marsh & McLennan Cos. agreed to pay $850 million to settle charges of fraud and anti-competitive practices at its Marsh unit stemming from an investigation by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer into bid-rigging.
Under the agreement, the insurance broker agreed to provide restitution to its policyholders who were harmed by its actions and adopt a new business model designed to avoid conflicts of interest, according to an announcement made by Spitzer and the superintendent of the New York State Insurance Department, at the time.
In addition, the company had agreed to adopt what Spitzer's office called "dramatic new reforms," including a limit on insurance brokerage compensation to a single fee or commission at the time of placement, a ban on contingent commissions, and a requirement that all forms of compensation will be disclosed to and approved by Marsh's clients.
~ ~ ~
(Question for Hawaii Insurance Commissioner J.P. Schmidt: What restitution was made to Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate and P&C Insurance Company for Marsh & McLennan’s overcharges? See: www.kycbs.net/KSBE-INTERROGATORIES.htm and www.kycbs.net/Claims-Branch-Commissioners.htm)
~ ~ ~
In October 2004, Spitzer alleged that Marsh steered its clients to insurers with which it had lucrative payoff agreements, and that the firm solicited rigged bids for insurance contracts. Later that month, Jeffrey Greenberg stepped down as Marsh's chairman and CEO.
In February 2005, former Marsh executive Kathryn Winter pleaded guilty to criminal charges in New York County Supreme Court, admitting that she took part in a scheme to defraud clients between 2001 and 2004.
~ ~ ~
NEW DISCOVERY (01-07-08):
January 7, 2008
Trial Opens for 5 Former
Insurance Execs
By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, Forbes, AP
HARTFORD, Conn. - The former chairman and CEO of the world's largest insurer initiated a deal that led to five ex-executives being charged with participating in a scheme to manipulate the company's financial statements, a federal prosecutor said Monday during opening arguments at their trial.
Four former executives of Berkshire Hathaway (nyse: BRKA - news - people )'s General Re Corp. and a former executive of American International Group Inc. (nyse: AIG - news - people ) are charged in the scheme involving AIG's financial statements.
Prosecutor Raymond Patricco said former AIG CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, who has not been charged in the case, started the scheme in 2000, after AIG's stock price dropped 6 percent, representing a loss of $12 billion to shareholders. The price dropped because loss reserves had declined.
"Greenberg and AIG came to Gen Re for this deal," Patricco said.
Attorneys for the defendants denied their clients did anything wrong Monday and said the case involved complex, subjective accounting. They attacked government witnesses - two senior Gen Re executives who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to falsify SEC filings - as out to save themselves.
They also said their clients did not benefit financially from the scheme.
"This is not Enron or WorldCom," said Anthony Pacheco, attorney for former General Re Senior Vice President Christopher P. Garand, referring to two of the biggest recent business scandals.
Greenberg, who headed New York-based AIG for nearly 40 years, has denied any wrongdoing. He was referred to as an unindicted coconspirator in an indictment.
Allegations of accounting irregularities, including the Gen Re transactions, led to his resignation in 2005.
At issue in the trial of the former executives are two reinsurance transactions between AIG and Stamford-based General Re. Reinsurance policies are backups purchased by insurance companies to completely or partly insure the risk they have assumed for their customers.
Prosecutors said the transactions were initiated by an AIG senior executive to quell criticism by analysts of a reduction in AIG's loss reserves in the third quarter of 2000. The indictment alleges that the aim was to make it appear that AIG increased its loss reserves by about $500 million in 2000 and 2001, pacifying the analysts and investors and artificially boosting the company's stock price.
"But the evidence in this case will show that deal was nothing more than a sham transaction," Patricco said. "The defendants in this case knew what appeared in the contracts was a lie."
Prosecutors said Greenberg called his friend, former General Re CEO Ronald Ferguson, who is one of the defendants, and told him that AIG wanted to increase its loss reserves by $500 million, but did not want to bear the risk.
Ferguson agreed to the deal Greenberg proposed, Patricco said.
For a reinsurance transaction to be legitimate, there must be a transfer of risk, which was lacking in the deal in question, prosecutors said.
"The evidence in this case will show the defendants knew this would be a no-risk deal for AIG," Patricco said.
Greenberg and the company later reported that the loss reserves had gone up.
"Plain and simple, ladies and gentlemen, the statements about AIG's loss reserves were lies," Patricco said.
In opening arguments, Patricco never mentioned billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who could play a role in the trial. Some of the executives say they believed Buffett was involved and supported the deal that led to the charges. Buffett leads Berkshire Hathaway.
But prosecutors say they only named Buffett, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing, as a potential witness to rebut any suggestion by the defense that he was involved in or approved the deal.
Michael Horowitz, Ferguson's attorney, said Monday that his client told Buffett and others about the requested transaction.
"Not a single red cent went into his pocket," Horowitz said.
The former General Re executives charged were Ferguson, chief executive officer from about 1987 through September 2001; Elizabeth Monrad, chief financial officer from June 2000 through July 2003; Robert Graham, a senior vice president and assistant general counsel from about 1986 through October 2005; and Garand, a senior vice president from 1994 until 2005.
Also charged was Christian Milton, AIG's vice president of reinsurance from about April 1982 until March 2005. Patricco said Monday that he lost $360,000 when the stock price dropped.
The defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
AIG filed a restatement in 2005 related to the transactions and agreed to pay a record $1.64 billion in a settlement with federal and New York authorities.
In 2005, two senior Gen Re executives, John Houldsworth and Richard Napier, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to falsify SEC filings in connection with the investigation and are awaiting sentencing.
If convicted of all the charges, Ferguson, Monrad, Milton and Graham each face up to 230 years in prison and a fine of up to $46 million. Garand faces up to 160 years in prison and a fine of up to $29.5 million.
The trial is expected to last about two months.
The indictment:
www.usdoj.gov/usao/ct/Documents/FERGUSON_SS_Indictment.pdf
~ ~ ~
NEW DISCOVERY (02-09-08): Kamehameha Schools made a “confidential” settlement agreement with the plaintiff in the John Doe vs. Kamehameha Schools case, which my former attorney, John Goemans, Esq., says, according to what he has learned from the IRS, violates the rules for a non-profit charitable trust:
February 9, 2008
$7M
An attorney involved in a challenge to Kamehameha Schools' Hawaiians-only policy reveals the amount of a settlement
By Ken Kobayashi, Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Kamehameha Schools made the first move to settle a legal challenge to their admissions policy giving preference to native Hawaiians and later agreed to pay $7 million, a lawyer involved in the case said yesterday.
John Goemans, an attorney for an unnamed non-native Hawaiian student who filed a lawsuit contesting the policy, said the charitable trust offered for the first time to talk about an out-of-court settlement last May, just days before the U.S. Supreme Court was to decide whether to hear the case.
Goemans, a former Big Island attorney recuperating in Florida from heart surgery, and Sacramento, Calif., lawyer Eric Grant, the lead attorney, represented the unnamed student and his mother.
"They (the schools) approached Eric and said we wanted to settle and we have to settle by Friday morning," when it was believed the high court was to make a decision about accepting the case, Goemans said.
He said it appeared the high court would accept their appeal of an 8-7 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld the policy.
"They (the schools) were worried about losing in the Supreme Court," Goemans said.
Goemans said he did not know how Grant and the Kamehameha Schools arrived at the $7 million figure.
The hotly disputed federal civil rights lawsuit caused a firestorm of controversy among Kamehameha Schools supporters who believed the challenge struck at the more than century-old admissions policy and the heart of the charitable trust's mission to educate children of Hawaiian ancestry.
The confidential settlement was announced on May 14. Those connected with the case repeatedly refused to disclose the terms.
Goemans said he was disclosing the amount because he said he recently learned from Internal Revenue Service officials that Kamehameha Schools, a tax-exempt charitable trust, cannot keep the figure confidential.
"Because exempt organizations operate in the public good, you got to report all your expenses with particularity, and you cannot keep information relative to those expenses confidential," he said. "It's in the public interest to have full disclosure."
Ann Botticelli, Kamehameha Schools spokeswoman, said yesterday the settlement contained a confidentiality clause.
"We intend to honor the terms, and we will not be discussing the settlement or John Goemans' assertions," she said.
Grant said yesterday he had no comment.
Kamehameha Schools, a multibillion-dollar charitable trust and the state's largest private landowner, was established under the 1883 will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop. It educates more than 6,700 students at its flagship campus at Kapalama Heights, two other campuses on Maui and the Big Island, and 31 preschools throughout the state.
Senior U.S. District Judge Alan Kay upheld the school's Hawaiians-first policy, but a panel of the appeals court in San Francisco ruled 2-1 that the practice violated federal civil rights laws. That decision triggered statewide protests and marches by school supporters.
Later, a larger appeals court panel voted 8-7 to uphold the policy.
It was an appeal by Grant of that 8-7 ruling that was on the doorsteps of the U.S. Supreme Court when the settlement was announced.
At the time, school officials indicated that the settlement calling for the dismissal of the lawsuit leaves intact the appeals court's 8-7 decision upholding the admissions policy.
But the dismissal does not guarantee that another lawsuit might surface and make its way to the high court, although it would first have to go through the federal trial and appeals courts, where the 8-7 ruling would be considered to be binding on the issue. But even if those who file the new lawsuit lose on those two levels, they could still ask the high court to review the case.
Honolulu attorney David Rosen said he has plaintiffs for a lawsuit to challenge the admissions policy. He said the settlement does not affect his case. Rosen said he expects the suit will be filed this year.
Goemans said Grant received 40 percent, or $2.8 million of the $7 million. Goemans said he is preparing to file his own lawsuit seeking to recover a "reasonable percentage" of the $7 million for his work in the case.
Goemans said he found the unnamed student and arranged for Grant to be the attorney for the student and his mother.
"I put the whole thing together," Goemans said. "But for me there would not have been a $7 million payment."
The student never was admitted to Kamehameha Schools because his case was pending. He has since graduated from high school and had been attending college, Grant said last year.
http://starbulletin.com/2008/02/09/news/story02.html
~ ~ ~
February 9, 2008
Amount of settlement
raises critical concern
By Robert Shikina, rshikina@starbulletin.com
Supporters and critics expressed surprise yesterday at the $7 million Kamehameha Schools paid a student to settle a lawsuit disputing its Hawaiians-first admission policy.
One Kamehameha Schools alumnus says disclosure of the settlement with the anonymous, non-Hawaiian student will prompt questions among Hawaiians.
"I'm not happy with $7 million," said Kamehameha Schools alumnus Jan E. Hanohano Dill. "Unfortunately, that's a lot of money, and it's going to create a lot of questions in the Hawaiian community whether it was right or wrong and to continue."
Dill, also a board member of Na Pua a Ke Ali'i Pauahi, a nonprofit group whose members include students, parents, and alumni of Kamehameha Schools, said he continues to support the school's decision.
"I don't know the details, and I think that's something that has to be cleared," he said. "You settle because you want to avoid costs that would be incurred as you go forward."
He added, "I have to believe that they understood that this was something good for the Hawaiian people. ... It will be clear as things unfold whether that was true."
Dill, who is also president of the nonprofit Partners in Development Foundation, said the admissions policy must eventually be addressed and that the settlement avoids this case but does not stop other cases.
Marion Joy, former vice president of Na Pua, called the settlement a "misuse of trust funds."
"The trust is continually going to be challenged," she said. "This is not going to be the last. ... As far as settling for the particular lawsuit, it's not in the best interests of the beneficiaries (of the 1883 will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop)."
Kamehameha Schools declined comment.
Honolulu attorney David Rosen, who has sought potential clients to sue Kamehameha over its admissions policy after the settlement, sent out a statement yesterday that said the $7 million settlement was used to "buy off this case."
He added that the trustees should open a campus on the Leeward Coast of Oahu and possibly Molokai where increased educational opportunities are needed.
H. William Burgess, a retired attorney and founder of Aloha for All, a group opposed to Hawaiian sovereignty, said the settlement raises questions about the proper use of the trust funds.
"Normally, trustees, if they're doubtful about doing something, they ask the court to give them instructions," he said. "Yet in this case, the biggest charitable trust, probably in the nation, instead of welcoming the opportunity to get the highest court in the land to settle it, they pay $7 million to leave it open. And it is very much open."
http://starbulletin.com/2008/02/09/news/story03.html
* * *
NEW DISCOVERY OF FACTS: Proposed Successor-Trustee David Farmer has worked with Judge Robert Faris and Marsh & McLennan’s Mercer Consulting Services in the Aloha Airlines bankruptcy case.
~ ~ ~
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.
~ ~ ~
NEW DISCOVERY - 02/18/08:
May 29, 2006
Trinity may buy bankrupt
Waikiki Hyatt
Pacific Business News (Honolulu)
The new owner of The Kahala Resort is positioning itself as a potential bidder for the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Resort & Spa.
Trinity Investments, a Honolulu-based firm that has made substantial profits specializing in the purchase of hotels owned by cash-strapped Japanese companies, now holds the first and second mortgages on the Hyatt Regency Waikiki. The firm bought the mortgages in March, about a month after the Japanese hotel owner filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in court in Honolulu.
The owner, Azabu Buildings Co. Ltd., went into bankruptcy Feb. 1. The mortgages held by Trinity total $330 million, and mature Nov. 6. Trinity hopes to convert its mortgage claim to equity by then.
Meanwhile, Trinity also acquired C.K. Corp., one of the fee owners of the land under the hotel.
Since it was founded by former Amfac hotel executive Charles Sweeney and Honolulu attorney Jon Miho in 1997, Trinity has picked up distressed commercial and resort properties bought or built by Japanese companies in the 1980s, refreshed and repositioned them, then resold at a hefty profit. Trinity often approached the hotels' creditors directly, offering cash to take the properties off their books quickly.
Late last year, Trinity acquired the Kahala Mandarin Oriental from its financially troubled Japanese owner for $175 million. Trinity changed the name to The Kahala Resort and took over the hotel's management.
Trinity adopted a similar strategy when it acquired the Kea Lani on Maui, upgrading and managing the property until it was sold in 2001.
But acquiring the Hyatt property will be a complex and expensive proposition. Hotels are now one of the hottest segments in commercial real estate and unlike the late 1990s, no one is selling at a loss.
Azabu won a four-month extension last week from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris to file its reorganization plan. Its new due date is Oct. 1....
But before Azabu gets to draw up a reorganization plan there are several other pending matters, including the eligibility of the claims of Japanese creditors who forced Azabu into bankruptcy.
Azabu Buildings owes about $4.3 billion to 35 creditors in Japan. Its primary asset in Hawaii is the hotel, in addition to which it owns $6.2 million worth of property, including a leasehold interest in the King's Village Shopping Center behind the Hyatt. The center is not involved in the bankruptcy.
However, the company's Japanese creditors banded together and filed for an involuntary bankruptcy petition in Hawaii last November. Azabu forged an agreement with its creditors to withdraw their petition, and filed for voluntary Chapter 11 in February.
"Anticipated litigation in this case could delay the sale of the hotel and/or confirmation of a reorganization plan," said James Wagner, who represents Azabu, in a court filing.
Also, The Chuo Mitsui Trust and Banking Co., Azabu's Japanese banker, says it holds a $125 million unpaid claim.
Further complicating any deal is the lease of the land under the Hyatt. Azabu's lease runs until 2047, but it is required to renegotiate the rent for the next 10 years, starting next Jan. 1. At present, Azabu pays a total of $5 million in annual rent to three owners.
Another possible disruption would be the hotel's negotiations with its union, whose contracts expire June 30.
These significant issues, Azabu's attorneys have argued, stand in the way of a sale of the hotel or putting together a reorganization plan that maximizes its value.
Paul Alston, the Honolulu attorney who represents Chuo Mitsui and the two mortgage lenders that Trinity acquired, said the case can't be dragged on forever.
"The loans come due Nov. 6 and things can't wait," Alston said. "Nobody has made any decisions yet, because people still are unraveling the Gordian knot. But things need to start happening."
Alston said Trinity is looking at several options including buying the hotel or being part of Azabu's reorganization plan for the hotel.
Such complex cases are not new to Azabu, whose Hawaii properties have been dragged into court by Japanese creditors before.
In 1993, Chuo Mitsui foreclosed on the $850 million mortgage on the Hyatt Waikiki. In 1996, Chuo Mitsui and Azabu struck a deal, and the bank created two entities that refinanced the loans to $380 million.
These were the two entities that Trinity bought, giving them control of the Hyatt mortgages. Trinity executives did not respond to requests for comment.
In 1998, the bank foreclosed on the Maui Marriott Resort, another Azabu purchase during its $600 million buying spree between 1986 and 1990. Azabu had to sell that property, and ended up owing $125 million to the bank. It's been chipping away at that debt from the Waikiki hotel's earnings.
Judge Faris has allowed Azabu to stop payment to that account so that it can pay for administrative and bankruptcy costs.
http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2006/05/29/story1.html
For more, GO TO > > > The Unholy Trinity; The Vultures in VMS Realty; Yakuza Doodle Dandies; Dirty Money, Dirty Politics & Bishop Estate; Paradise Paved
~ ~ ~
May 17, 2006
Corruption at the CIA
Hawaiian
Hideaway?
by Rhonda Schwartz Reports, ABC News
Sources close to the widening probe of official corruption in Washington tell ABC News that investigators are studying travel records of expensive trips to Hawaii and Europe taken by top CIA official Dusty Foggo and San Diego defense contractor Brent Wilkes.
Prosecutors want to know who paid for the lavish trips to European castles and top end Hawaiian resorts, including this $7,000 a night Honolulu beachfront mansion, owned at one time by hair stylist super-star Paul Mitchell.
Wilkes, a close personal friend of Foggo is suspected of paying bribes to Congressman Duke Cunningham, who recently pled guilty in the corruption investigation.
* * * * *
To see the real estate ad - photos and video of the "Paul Mitchell" Estate - for the luxurious TRINITY vacation home rented for Wilkes and Foggo, click here:
http://www.hawaiianluxuryestaterentals.com/WEBS/Lanikai/104/PAULMITCHELLESTATE.html
* * * * *
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/05/hawaiian_hideaw.html
~ ~ ~
October 11, 2006
The Real Deal Behind Granholm's "U. P. Big Deal"
By C. J. Williams, www.MichNews.com
On January 6, 2005 the Yooper grapevine was abuzz with news of another State of Michigan/Nature Conservancy land grab scheme involving 271,000 acres in eight counties, an amount equivalent to 502 square miles. The parcel had been carved from 390,000 forestland acres situated in ten of the Upper Peninsula’s fifteen counties.
Described by the Conservancy as an ecological treasure trove of nature’s precious jewels and pristine landscapes, the 390,000 acres, once owned by the Bishop Estate Trust (a.k.a. Kamehameha Schools Trust), includes more than 300 lakes and 526 miles of rivers and streams. However, as Paul Harvey would say, it’s time to tell the rest of the story about story about Governor Granholm’s “U. P. Big Deal”, also known as the Nature Conservancy’s “Northern Great Lakes Forest Project”.
Bernice Pauahi Bishop was the great-granddaughter and last direct descendent of Hawaiian King Kamehameha I. Born to high priests, Bernice was raised by a prime minister and educated by Protestant missionaries. While in her teens, she married Charles Bishop, a 28-year old New Yorker.
After her death in 1884, Charles helped establish the Kamehameha Schools and subsequent Bishop Trust according to Bernice’s last will and testament. To do so he used her substantial land holdings and his considerable wealth.
The Bishop Trust, Hawaii’s largest private landowner once estimated to be worth $10 billion or more, still operates schools and educational programs throughout the islands. Over the past several decades, the scandal-ridden Trust has been raided through convoluted schemes that almost defy unraveling.
So how did it come to pass that a Hawaiian trust fund once owned so much of Michigan’s beautiful Upper Peninsula? The answer lies in a purported friendship between Ben Benson and Mark McConaghy, a PricewaterhouseCoopers tax expert hired by the Bishop Estate trustees to keep the IRS off their greedy backs. But, I get ahead of myself.
Some of the 271,000 acres, now lauded as Granholm’s “U.P. Big Deal”, once belonged to the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company. By the late 1960’s, however, C & H could no longer afford to mine copper while meeting all the new environmental standards being put in place. Having to compete with China and other countries, which produce ore with cheap labor while ignoring environmental issues, and facing demands of better pay from its own striking miners in 1968, C & H closed its mines and sold its land holdings to Universal Oil Products.
A similar fate met miners who rode buses for up to an hour or more to the Copper Range mine near White Pine in Ontonagon County. An environmental lawsuit filed in 1995 by the National Wildlife Federation, the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, and others, plus a successful effort to agitate a band of Native Americans over environmental issues, helped end copper’s glory days there, too. But the world’s greatest source of native copper, uranium, gas, oil, and other valuable underground resources still lie waiting in the U.P. and the State of Michigan, the Conservancy, and global mining conglomerates know it.
Ben Benson, a very young New Englander, amassed some of the former C & H property in the late 1980’s, combined it with 292,000 acres purchased in 1990 from Cliff’s Forest Products (Cleveland-Cliffs), added a little bit more from here and there, and set about developing a high-tech, satellite-enhanced timbering operation, or so the tale is told.
According to Maura Singleton’s August 1999 article, “Sea Hawk”, published in the Virginia Business Magazine, 40-year-old Benson had been a dyslexic and indifferent student who dropped out of school in the ninth grade. At age 15, he stole the family car, drove from Cape Cod to Maine, and used a newly obtained credit card to buy 100 acres of rocky wilderness, which he subdivided and sold in 5-acre vacation plots.
Singleton wrote that, at age 17, Benson joined the Navy submarine corps and worked with sonar on a nuclear fast-attack sub, but his plan for a Navy career went by the wayside four years later due to allergies.
By the early 1980’s, Benson, who claimed never to have done anything for more than four years, had already run an oil company and a New Hampshire real estate development company.
He then focused attention on the state of Virginia, marrying the granddaughter of an East Shore developer, an area where the Nature Conservancy (TNC) controlled and mismanaged a great deal of land. It was here that Benson again took up work in real estate, developing exclusive coastline property.
In 1991, Benson, with title to about half-a-million U.P. acres, became involved in a partnership of sorts with the Bishop Estate Trustees through his pal, Mark McConoghy. But, in 1994 at age 35, after surviving two heart attacks within an 8-month period, he sold his U.P. land holdings to the Trust for a few million dollars and bought a 65-foot Hatteras, which he christened “Sea Hawk”.
The partnership may have dissolved, but it later caused Benson’s name to come up in Bobby Harmon’s RICO lawsuit - Civil No. 99-00304 DAE: Harmon v Federal Insurance Company, P & C Insurance Co., Inc., Marsh & McLennan, Inc., Trustees of Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate, PricewaterhouseCoopers, et al, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii.
Harmon is still immersed in litigation regarding his claims of fraud, tax evasion, racketeering and other wrongful acts involving the Bishop Land Trust. His lengthy witness list, which he adds to almost daily, includes newly appointed U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson who is a former Goldman Sachs CEO. Paulson was also a Board member of the Nature Conservancy and served as co-chairman of its Asia Pacific Council. At one time, the scandal-ridden Bishop Trust owned a great deal of Goldman Sachs stock.
When Benson was featured in the “Sea Hawk” article, he was searching for millions of dollars worth of lost treasure off Virginia’s coast and dueling with Spain for the right to do so. He’s since sold that venture, Sea Hawk, Inc., to wheeler and dealer Peter Knollenberg.
Considering that Benson had been a dyslexic, fifteen-year-old credit card-owning high school dropout and run-away, his estimated fortune, said to be around $110 million several years ago, isn’t too shabby.
After Benson sold his U.P. holdings to the Bishop Trust, Benson Forest Products became known as Munising based Shelter Bay Forests, which managed the trust’s U.P. land holdings with “gentle timbering” technology until the forestland was put up for bids in the fall of 2002.
Although Governor Engler, the Conservancy, and an “undisclosed timber company” formed a “private-public” partnership to bid on the Bishop Trust land, they lost out to Forestland Group LLC, which closed on their deal during the summer of 2003.
Founded in 1995, Forestland Group is a North Carolina based forest investment management organization (TIMO) that purchases property through its various Heartwood Forestland Funds. As of April 2005, Forestland Group owned 560,000 Upper Peninsula acres; 78,110 acres in Houghton and Keweenaw Counties bought from Mead in 1998, 91,117 acres in Iron, Ontonagon, Houghton and Baraga Counties bought from Ned Lake Timber and Land Company in 2001, and the remainder being the former Bishop Trust holdings of 389,202 acres bought in the summer of 2003.
Within a few months of closing on the Bishop Trust deal, Forestland Group offered its prize to the State of Michigan, and by January 2004 the Michigan Chapter of the Nature Conservancy had already secured at least one grant toward the purchase. That’s not surprising, however, considering that a January ‘05 news article written by George Gallagher for the Council of Michigan Foundations lauds several foundations that had taken an active role to help TNC’s Michigan chapter in their then four-year public/private partnership initiative to get their biscuit hooks on the Upper Peninsula Bishop Trust timberland.
Upon learning in 2002 that the public/private partnership lost the bid, Phil Powers, then chairman of the MI-Nature Conservancy, said Forestland Group could fit in with the Conservancy’s goals. “Our sense is they’ve got a first-class track record of putting in place solutions like the ones we’re working on. We in the Nature Conservancy are looking forward to working out a partnership with them,” said Powers.
Tina Hall, the U.P. director of the MI-Nature Conservancy, said the idea of securing recreational access easements to portions of the property was not dead. “…We know the Forestland Group so well, we feel we can work with them,” said Hall.
As the story behind the “U.P. Big Deal” unfolded, it was claimed that key players met at Governor Granholm’s office in November 2003. And, though she had to put the parties in separate rooms when negotiations broke down and shuffle back and forth with offers and counter-offers until she got them to make a deal, an agreement was finally made between the two who’ve been bed partners for years - the State of Michigan and the Nature Conservancy - in tandem with Forestland Group LLC, whose President and CEO is none other than Thomas Massengale, a former Nature Conservancy senior executive and founder of it’s North Carolina Chapter.
Of the 390,000 Bishop Trust acres for which Forestland Group outbid the State, the Nature Conservancy, and their “unnamed” timber company partner, the Conservancy, with multi-billion dollars in tax-exempt assets, will own fee interest (includes mineral rights) in 23,338 acres in the Big Two Hearted River watershed and will manage the State’s conservation easement on 248,000 acres still owned by Forestland Group.
A campaign to fund Granholm’s “U.P. Big Deal” land grab for the Conservancy’s $57.9 million “Northern Great Lakes Forest Project” got underway without anyone asking state citizens if they approved of her Big Deal or not.
Pretty slick, eh!
Copyright by C. J. Williams
Related:
http://www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-23442
_21974-107788--M_2005_1,00.html
http://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=
ind9807&L=sub-arch&T=0&P=1381
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/nation/specials/natureconservancy/
http://www.virginiabusiness.com/magazine/yr1999
/aug99/itsup/cover.html
http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/
states/michigan/preserves/art17158.html
http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica
/states/michigan/misc/art14792.html
http://www.mass.gov/obcbbo/bd93-042-2.htm
~ ~ ~
www.michnews.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/318/14384/printer
< END OF QUOTE >
The following is quoted from my letter dated January 5, 1997, to
Mr. John Sinnott, Chairman of the Board, Marsh & McLennan, Inc:
SUBJECT: Settlement Proposal for Fraud/Misrepresentation Claim
Dear Mr. Sinnott:
The purpose of this letter is to present my claim for damages directly to you and your insurance carriers in an effort to negotiate a fair and reasonable settlement and to avoid the adverse publicity and high cost of a lawsuit.
As background, I was formerly the Risk/Insurance & Safety Manager for the Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate (KSBE), a tax-exempt charitable organization, and President of P&C Insurance Company, Inc. (P&C), a captive insurance company wholly-owned by Pauahi Holdings Corporation, a for-profit subsidiary of KSBE.
On November 20, 1996, I received my termination notice from KSBE from my superior, Nathan Aipa, who is the General Counsel and Director of the Legal Group for KSBE. The letter states, "This action is being taken in recognition of a fundamental philosophical difference between (1) our teamwork and management approach within the Legal Group, and (2) your view and approach to the management of the risk insurance and safety department."
At the same meeting, Mr. Aipa gave me my termination notice as President of P&C Insurance Company, Inc., in the form of a letter from Henry H. Peters, Chairman of the Board of Directors. This letter gave no reason for the termination.
I consider both terminations to be wrongful and instituted for unreasonable and unjust causes, and I have filed a wrongful termination claim with KSBE and its insurance carriers. My letter of December 29, 1996 to the Trustees details the motives and provides the evidence to support my claim. A copy is enclosed for your information and review.
As you will note throughout my letter to KSBE, the Honolulu offices of Marsh & McLennan, Inc. (MMI) and M&M Insurance Management Services, Inc. (IMS) have been heavily involved in the wrongful actions which resulted in my termination, and it is for these actions that I am bringing this claim against MMI and IMS....
Page 7, under "Arms-length Relationships/Conflicts of Interest":
The officers (of P&C) included myself; Peter Lowe, an officer of M&M Insurance Management Services, Inc., which is a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan, Inc.; William Richardson, a former trustee and current consultant for KSBE; and Nathan Aipa, General Counsel for KSBE. KSBE has also been involved with another MMI subsidiary, Guy Carpenter, through its sizable investments in two Bermuda insurance companies, Centre Reinsurance and Mid-Ocean Reinsurance.
...Claims committee members included...Rocco Sansone (MMI) and Pat Onogi (MMI).
Page 18:
...former Treasury Secretary Simon has been the estate's business partner in several major banking deals both in Hawaii and in Asia in recent years." (The banking deal in Hawaii was HONFED, which was later sold to Bank of America. State Insurance Commissioner Wayne Metcalf took legal action against Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, along with other brokerage companies, in connection with the failure of Investors Equity Life Insurance Company, which had sold annuities through HONFED. I was advised by Rocco Sansone that Mert Chillingworth, former president of Marsh & McLennan, Hawaii, also served on the board of directors of HONFED during the period they were marketing the Investors Equity annuities. Another major banking deal with Simon came after this article was published when KSBE became the majority stockholder in SOCAL Holdings, which owns Southern California Savings & Loan Company.) Simon also personally invested, along with four estate trustees and numerous senior estate staffers, in a Houston-based methane gas drilling project that is now mired in federal bankruptcy court proceedings. The estate itself invested some $85 million in the same energy deal.
Page 20:
Goldman Sachs continues to be involved in lawsuits accusing the firm of illegal dealings. The Star-Bulletin reports in its December 11, 1996 edition under the headline, "Investors Equitydeal OK'd":
"A Circuit Court judge has approved a settlement between state Insurance Commissioner Wayne Metcalf and Gary Vose, the sole shareholder of Investors Equity's parent company at the time the insurer was placed into liquidation in June 1994..."
"The state seized the insurance company after its management ran up a $90 million deficit largely because Vose lost policyholders' money in highly speculative leveraged investments known as derivatives, the state charges..."
"Metcalf said the settlement is part of a series of actions against Bank of America, several brokerage companies including...Goldman Sachs, accountants and attorneys associated with the failure of Investors Equity Life..."
"A state lawsuit accused Vose of racketeering, fraud and other misconduct... The suit alleges that the holding company that controlled Investors Equity conducted sham real estate deals and used the insurance firm's assets to pay large fees to Vose and companies connected with him..."
Bishop Estate and William Simon had other tie-ins with Investors Equity Life through their HonFed investment. Marsh & McLennan had a connection with HonFed as their insurance broker, as well as Mert Chillingworth who sat on HonFed's board of directors.
Page 25:
“One wonders about arms-length and other tax issues with many other deals, such as the one with Benson Forests (now Shelter Bay Forests). This deal, in which Mark McConaghy also had a hand, involved a number of partnership transactions with Ben Benson, which concluded with KSBE buying Benson's remaining interests in the partnership. During the time Benson was still a partner, the estate arranged and paid for a life insurance policy on Benson. The policy was purchased through Marsh & McLennan. Shortly after Benson sold his interests to Bishop, he and his wife made a large charitable donation of an island in the Atlantic to the Kamehameha Schools.
Page 25:
“During the period when the formation of the captive insurance company was under discussion, I recommended to Mr. Aipa that I be transferred from KSBE to the captive in large part due to the arms-length issues. I drafted a staff report for this transfer which was submitted to Mr. Aipa for review and approval. The recommendation was that I be transferred to P&C and that KSBE contract with P&C for risk management services. The Personnel Division was consulted about the continuation of benefit programs and other employment issues if this transfer were made. I included an estimated $200,000 in the initial budget for P&C to establish and operate a separate office.
This staff report was never presented to trustees by Mr. Aipa.”
“Taxpayer Bill of Rights II - Intermediate Sanctions for Tax-Exempt Organizations. Under a bill signed July 30, 1996, Congress enacted rules which allow the IRS to assess penalty excise taxes on individuals who are involved in transactions with tax-exempt organizations that constitute private inurement. The law applies retroactively to ‘excess benefit’ transactions occurring after September 13, 1995.”
“Penalty excise taxes can also be imposed on ‘organization managers’ (an officer, director, or trustee) who knowingly permits the organization to engage in an excess benefit transaction, even if that manager did not personally benefit.”
“Tax-exempt organizations cannot circumvent the rules by causing a controlled entity to engage in the excess benefit transaction.”
An article entitled, ‘No More Sweetheart Deals’, in the September 23, 1996 issue of Forbes includes the following comments and example:
"Under the new rules, trouble starts if the IRS determines that there has been a misdeed with an "excess benefit." It could be fat salary, a sweetheart contract or an embezzlement. If someone got an excess benefit, the IRS can both fine the recipient 25% of the benefit and demand that the benefit be given back to the charity. If the guilty party doesn't pay the money back, he or she owes twice the excess benefit to Uncle Sam."
"Say a board member convinces the president of a college to let the school's insurance contracts to her firm, even though going with a rival would save the school $150,000. In turn, the board member is influential in voting the president a lavish salary, perhaps $200,000 higher than the norm at comparable universities. The IRS could force the repayment of both the $150,000 and the $200,000..."
“What about directors who sit still for this kind of mischief? They can be fined a collective $10,000, even if they didn't profit..."
www.kycbs.net/SINNOTT-1-5-97.htm
~ ~ ~
Annual Report
Fiscal Year 2005 (July 1, 2004 – June 30, 2005)
Gregory House Programs: Mission Statement and Purpose
Incorporated in 1988, Gregory House Programs (GHP) is Hawaii’s only statewide HIV/AIDS housing agency. GHP is a private tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is “To provide housing and supportive services on a long term, temporary or respite basis for persons who are displaced due to the impact of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Virus in their lives and to provide access to appropriate public and private support services.”
Gregory House Programs purpose and mission is to increase and sustain housing and related services for people living with HIV/AIDS. GHP is dedicated to forging local and national partnerships (through funding and other means) with housing, health, and social service agencies, to help people living with HIV and AIDS in securing and or maintaining their housing and support service needs....
Exhibit A
Gregory House Programs assists approximately 225 households (individuals and families) every month through the following programs and services.
1. Gregory House/GH (since 1988): Serves homeless adults in a clean and sober setting with a maximum capacity of 11. A transitional housing program, clients may remain at Gregory House for up to two years. Funding sources: State funds – Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii, (HCDCH); federal – a direct grant with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) – Housing for People with AIDS (HOPWA) under the Special Project of National Significance (SPNS), and private sources.
2. Temporary Shelter Program/TS (since 1989): Provides emergency shelter for up to two weeks statewide at a YMCA, YWCA or economy hotel. The program provides an average of 5 shelters per month. Funding sources: State of Hawaii block-granted federal funds (Ryan White CARE Act, Title II), state funds- POS contract with DOH, and private sources....
Gregory House Programs Board of Directors
The Gregory House Programs Board of Directors as of June 30, 2005
President
Mr. James W. Cairl
HIV Nurse Coordinator
Kaiser Permanente Hawai`i
Vice-President
Mr. David Andreoli
General Manager
Banana Republic
Secretary/Treasurer
Mr. Guy Merola
Vice President, Finance
Commercial Data Systems, Inc.
Ms. Kiko Hayashida
Proprietor
KK.H. International, Inc., dba Sure Shot Café
Mr. Joe O’Mealy
Interim Dean and Professor of English
University of Hawaii – Manoa
Ms. Gennitt Simons
Consumer Advocate
Reverend Ron Williams
Associate Minister
Central Union Church
Mr. William Diaz, Jr.
Psychiatric Tech
Hawaii State Hospital
Mr. Rocco Sansone
Senior Vice President
Marsh USA, Inc.
Corporate Attorney
Mr. Brian Ezuka
Attorney at Law
~ ~ ~
July 11, 2000
Master backs interim
trustees on insurance
The estate could lose $75 million in insurance coverage
if trustees assist the state
By Rick Daysog, Star-Bulletin
The Kamehameha Schools' interim trustees should not be required to assist Attorney General Earl Anzai in his suit for multimillion-dollar surcharges against the trust's former board members, according to a court-appointed special master.
In a 19-page report filed in state Probate Court yesterday, attorney Michael Tanoue also said that the $6 billion charitable trust's current trustees aren't obligated to file a separate surcharge suit against ex-trustees Henry Peters, Richard "Dickie" Wong, Oswald Stender, Gerard Jervis and Lokelani Lindsey.
Tanoue's recommendations -- which will be subject to a July 21 hearing -- largely side with the estate's interim trustees, who have raised concerns that the trust could lose up to $75 million in insurance coverage if they take an active role in the state's litigation.
The attorney general's office has argued that the interim board has stonewalled its requests for information, causing a one-year trial delay. They believe that the interim trustees have allowed the estate's insurance policy to dictate their fiduciary duty.
The state's suit -- which is scheduled for a Sept. 18 trial -- alleges that the former trustees took excessive compensation, jeopardized the trust's tax-exempt status, mismanaged the trust's educational programs and incurred more than $200 million in investment losses during their tenures.
The former trustees have denied wrongdoing, but resigned last year after the Internal Revenue Service threatened to revoke the trust's tax-free status.
Tanoue said the state may be legally correct in its arguments that the interim board is duty-bound to pursue its predecessors for breaches of trust. But the "practical reality" is that the legal actions could result in little monetary recovery and could lead to the loss of the estate's insurance coverage, he said.
Tanoue added that the interim trustees should not be required to file a separate surcharge suit against their predecessors, saying such efforts would be duplicative and a waste of trust assets.
"Put it plainly, the interim trustees understand that any potential "paper judgement' against the former trustees -- though perhaps morally satisfying -- may not result in the return of any substantial monies to the trust estate," Tanoue said.
Deputy Attorney General Dorothy Sellers declined comment on Tanoue's recommendations.
The legal dispute between the state and the interim board emerged after the state's insurer, Federal Insurance Co., threatened to revoke up to $25 million in coverage if the interim board took an active role in the state's litigation.
Separately, Bermuda-based XL Insurance Co. informed the trust it would reserve the right to deny $50 million in reinsurance coverage purchased by the trust's captive insurance company, P&C Insurance Co.
http://starbulletin.com/2000/07/11/news/story1.html
November 12, 2007
Second Act
Phyllis Berman, Forbes
Robert Clements became a legend making big money in Bermuda insurance for Marsh & McLennan. Now at age 75 he's finally amassed some nice coin for himself--partly at his former employer's expense.
During a 35-year career at Marsh & McLennan, the giant insurance services firm, Robert Clements revolutionized the Bermuda insurance industry. Two insurers he set up for Marsh, ACE Ltd. and XL Capital Ltd., later went public and now have a combined market cap of $34 billion. Clements was also key in creating another successful insurer, Mid Ocean Re. One history of Bermuda insurance calls him a "founding father."
Clements was a hired hand. He got no founder shares in ACE or XL. In 1986, the year after he pulled off his reinsurance innovations, his bonus was bumped up only $25,000. A decade later he left his job running Marsh's investment arm and a year after that left the board of directors. Although he would remain a few more years as a consultant, at age 65 he essentially was out on his own.
Clements started doing insurance deals for himself. In his seventh and eighth decades Clements launched three companies. One, Arch Capital Group, is now about to crack the world's thousand biggest by market cap. This time around his ideas made him and his family a pile that came to several hundred million dollars before substantial charitable donations.
Doing well is the best revenge. The executive who replaced him at Marsh in 1996, Jeffrey Greenberg, later became chief executive--but lost that job in 2004 when then New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer alleged fraudulent selling practices. Marsh's shares are trading at barely half of what they were five years ago, and its short interest has risen sharply, meaning a lot of people are betting on a further fall. Of Marsh and its continuing troubles, Clements, a quiet, handsome man with piercing blue eyes who dresses casually, says cagily, "Of course, I wish them the best. But I'm hardly surprised, given the problems they have been forced to cope with."
A Chicago native, Clements went to Dartmouth. "I was never particularly ambitious," says the 75-year-old. "I was a mediocre student. When it came to my career, I was most concerned about vacations and retirement than how I was going to make a living." Clements recalls one professor telling him his real major was "poker, beer and class-cutting." Clements joined Marsh in 1960, working as a casualty broker in Canada; his dad, also a Dartmouth grad, was a manager in the firm's Chicago office.
Higher-ups spotted his talent. Clements rose through the ranks and moved to the New York corporate offices to become head of national casualty in 1975. In 1991 he became the parent company's vice chairman, in recognition of his work in the 1980s dramatically expanding the insurance market in Bermuda.
In the years after World War II the self-governing British colony had risen to prominence as a center for captive insurers. These are insurance firms created and wholly owned by a company (often U.S.) to self-insure only that company. Back home the parent company gets a tax deduction for premiums that really are transfers of assets held in reserve for future payouts. In Bermuda the reserves compound in a low-tax regime. Part of Bermuda's lure was avoidance of U.S. state-by-state bureaucracy and quick regulatory approvals. Also, Hamilton, Bermuda is just a three-hour flight from New York.
Clements' opening came in the mid-1980s when a crisis hit the market for excess (or "surplus") insurance, most notably policies underwritten by Lloyd's of London. This coverage kicks in after an underlying "primary" policy pays to its coverage limit. A string of huge claims--asbestos illnesses, hurricanes, the Bhopal gas disaster and other environmental ills, augmented by big jury awards--threatened to bankrupt some insurers. In some cases the excess insurer was being asked to pay for misdeeds that occurred before the primary insurance policy was even in effect.
Doodling on a notepad during a Paris-New York flight in 1984, Clements came up with the idea of creating entirely new terms that came to be known as "occurrence reported" coverage. Customers wanting excess insurance would have to purchase or self-insure large amounts of underlying primary insurance--in some cases covering the first $50 million of claims. New excess policies would cover old claims, say for groundwater contamination, if filed during the new policy period--but only to the limits of the excess coverage. Limits would be limits.
However, Clements' plan, and a similar plan for directors and officers coverage, attracted little interest from traditional insurers or, in the beginning, even from Marsh, his own employer. Marsh said he could set up the operations as long as it didn't have to put in any capital. It would, however, like to get some warrants--long-term options on shares of the new company.
In 1985 Clements persuaded 34 large U.S. companies--such as U.S. Steel, GE, Merck, Dow and Emerson Electric--to invest a total of $285 million to get ACE off the ground. Another $410 million went into XL Capital a few months later. Among the startups' positives: efficient staffing levels, pricing freedom since few competitors offered the product, no lingering claims--and new lucrative high-end products for Marsh's army of brokers.
ACE went public in 1993. Its market cap today is 69 times the money its industrial backers put in. The initial stakes in XL Capital, which went public in 1991, have grown 33-fold. "The biggest thing that has happened in the insurance business since the Chicago fire," one trade pub gushed about Clements' successes. Marsh likely collected several billion dollars from those warrants.
Clements' third company: Mid Ocean Re, a Bermuda reinsurer aimed at catastrophes like hurricanes or collapsed buildings as opposed to longer-gestation situations like asbestos contamination. This time Marsh took a 10% stake for $36 million in the 1992 founding. Clements got a sliver of equity. Marsh's stake paid off nicely when Mid Ocean was sold a few years later to, as it happened, XL Capital.
One night while at dinner with his eldest son, John, a West Coast investment banker, Robert Clements griped that his ideas were being copycatted during the long stretches it took to raise capital for a new company. "The next time you have a great idea, Dad," John said, "you should raise a fund." Replied Clements, who had spent much of his working life putting together deals for his employer, "What's a fund?"
In 1995 Clements started Arch Capital, another reinsurer with money from Marsh, other investors and himself. After he left Marsh, Marsh sold its interest. Clements then sold off Arch's book of existing business, raised $750 million from outside investors and in 2000 relaunched Arch as a public company, getting 4% of the stock as a fee. It was a good time to start a new reinsurance company, since the established ones were so fearful of potential big claims (like the resurgence of asbestos claims) that they refused to offer policies even to their best risks. In 2006 Arch had $3 billion in premiums.
Enough reinsurance. Why not move in on the primary market? Clements raised $1 billion and this year started Ironshore Ltd. The company, which has only 40 employees and works out of a small office in Hamilton, expects to offer policies insuring against storm and earthquake damage in several dozen countries, including the U.S.
In 2004 Clements, his son and two ex-Marsh presidents raised $320 million to launch Integro Corp., which brokers the sale of large, complex policies for corporations. So far, however, Integro has yet to prove itself, amid industry gossip that the expensive force of brokers it recruited--many from scandal-plagued Marsh--has yet to earn its keep. Clements says Integro is growing rapidly and wasn't supposed to make money in its first three years.
On Sept. 11, 2001 Clements, a kayaker, stroked into Long Island Sound to watch the huge black stream of smoke rising 35 miles to the southwest at the World Trade Center. (XL Capital and ACE were among the companies that had exposure to the resulting multibillion-dollar billion casualty settlement.)
The tragic event underscored the peculiar nature of insurance. "What we do is a kind of a craft," he muses. "Underwriting complex, enormous risks for the corporate world is something like a being high-wire walker."
http://www.forbes.com/part_forbes/2007/1112/127.html
~ ~ ~
Rocco Sansone is expected to testify as to the facts and circumstances of the settlement of Defendant’s wrongful termination and RICO lawsuits; his relationships with Defendant; Kamehameha Schools; P&C Insurance Co; Edwina Clarke; Rodney Park; Clyde Mark; Hamilton McCubbin; Dee Jay Mailer; National Association of Industrial and Office Properties; Kajima Construction Co; Robert F. Miller; Marsh & McLennan, Inc.; Mercer Consulting; Putnam; Federal Insurance Company (Chubb Group); XL Insurance; ACE, Ltd; American Re; Mid-Ocean Reinsurance; United Educators Risk Retention Group; Employers Re; AIG; Royal SunAlliance Insurance; John Mullen & Co.; Wally Chin; Peter Lowe; Nathan Aipa; Louanne Kam; Colleen Wong; Lyn Anzai; Christine Lee; Pat Onogi; William S. Richardson; Henry Peters; Gilbert Tam; Peter Savio; Robert Katz; Matt Tsukazaki; Richard Wong; Lokelani Lindsey; Jeff Stone; Kevin Showe; Ko Olina Partners; Seibu (Prince Hotels); Sukamto Sia; Bank of Honolulu; Bank of Hawaii; First Hawaiian Bank; Central Pacific Bank; HonFed Savings & Loan; Investor’s Equity; State of Hawaii; City & County of Honolulu; County of Maui; County of Hawaii; County of Kauai; Wayne Metcalf; Rey Graulty; J.P. Schmidt; Colbert Matsumoto; Island Insurance Co.; St. Paul Travelers Insurance Company; Hawaiian Insurance & Guaranty Co.; Elizabeth K. Lindsey Buyers; C. Brewer & Co.; Zephyr Insurance; Ron Poepoe; Dee Jay Mailer; Patty Woolaway; Art Woolaway; “Bud” McNeil; HonFed Savings & Loan; Investors Equity, Diane Plotts, Chris Hemmeter, Armed Forces YMCA, Gregory House, Kaiser Permanente, The Global Fund, Ben Benson, Mark McConaghy, James B. Nicholson, David C. Farmer, David Banmiller, Bonnie Freitas, Aloha Airlines, James Cribley, Robert Clements, Paul Bremer, Judge Robert Faris, Trinity Investment LLC, VMS Realty Partners, Jon Miho, Charles Sweeney, George Ruff, James Wriston, Robert Bruce Graham, Jr., The John T. and Catherine MacArthur Foundation, Honolulu Theatre for Youth, Valerie U. Katz, and others to be named upon discovery.
Rocco Sansone is expected to testify regarding alleged bribes, bid-rigging, excessive charges, fraud, tax fraud, non-reporting of claims, unfair claims practices, collusion with Louanne Kam, Christine Lee, Rodney Park, Wally Chin, Nathan Aipa, Henry Peters, Clyde Mark, and others, in falsifying KSBE’s insurance renewal applications, which resulted in denials of coverage from Federal Insurance Co., XL Insurance, and American Re in EQ2048, which resulted in losses to Kamehameha Schools in excess of $50 million, as well as in the settlement of the underlying Wrongful Termination and RICO lawsuits which resulted in the Settlement Agreement which was the subject of the Plaintiff’s Demand for Arbitration.
Rocco Sansone also is expected to testify regarding Marsh & McLennan’s written contract with P&C Insurance Company to provide services on a “time and expense” basis, and to explain why Marsh & McLennan violated this written contract by submitting billings on a “flat fee” basis.
Rocco Sansone also is expected to testify if any of M&M’s bids were “rigged” or falsified in collaboration with Federal Insurance Company, American Re, AIG, Aon or others, and whether Henry Peters, Richard Wong, or other trustees, officers, directors, employees or independent contractors of KSBE or any of its subsidiaries received any financial considerations or benefits from any companies in which Marsh & McLennan and KSBE had common financial interests (i.e., Mid-Ocean Reinsurance, Centre Reinsurance, Ace Ltd., Zurich Financial, Goldman Sachs, HonFed, etc.), including bribes, bogus bids, kick-backs, quid pro quo, loan guarantees, non-reporting of claims, improper accounting (“cooking the books”) or other improper or illegal financial transactions.
Internet References:
Zoominfo Profile for Bobby N. Harmon, CPCU
www.zoominfo.com/Search/ReferencesView.aspx?PersonID=912950374
www.kycbs.net/Zoominfo-Profile-Bobby-N-Harmon-CPCU.htm
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, News Articles and Related Links
www.kycbs.net/Coopers-Lybrand-11-20-96.htm
www.kycbs.net/SINNOTT-1-5-97.htm
www.kycbs.net/BH-Documents.htm
www.kycbs.net/MM-Marsh-Affinity.htm
http://www.freetheanimals.homestead.com/closehls.html
www.badfaithinsurance.org/reference/General/0060a.htm
www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2005/05/05/54728.htm
www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2005/08/04/57996.htm
www.corpwatch.org/print_article.php?&id=11657
www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11616
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=432204
http://www.gregoryhouse.org/Annual%20Report%20FY%2005.pdf
www.pauahi.org/mapuna-leo-newsletter/KAPF-2008-Winter-NL.pdf
www.kycbs.net/IRS-Intermediate-Sanctions.pdf
www.kycbs.net/PC-Harmon-To-Sansone-10-29-96.pdf
www.kycbs.net/PC-Harmon-to-Kam-11-20-96.pdf
www.kycbs.net/PC-Coopers-Lybrand-11-20-96.htm
www.kycbs.net/Claim-Marsh-Sinnott-1-5-97.htm
www.kycbs.net/911-COVERUP-2.htm
www.kycbs.net/911-COVERUP-3.htm
www.kycbs.net/Apartheid-Hawaii.htm
www.kycbs.net/Broken-Trust-Book.htm
www.kycbs.net/Hawaiian-Air.htm
www.kycbs.net/Hawaiian-Electric.htm
www.kycbs.net/Insurance-Vampires.htm
www.kycbs.net/KSBE-Pension.htm
www.kycbs.net/PriceWaterhouse.htm
www.kycbs.net/AlliedWorldAssurance.htm
www.kycbs.net/Royal-SunAmerica.htm
www.kycbs.net/Travelers-St-Paul.htm
www.kycbs.net/ConnecticutConnection.htm
www.kycbs.net/IndonesianConnection.htm
www.kycbs.net/PunaConnection.htm
www.kycbs.net/GoldmanSachs.htm
www.kycbs.net/Claims-By-Harmon.htm
www.kycbs.net/Claims-Branch-Commissioners.htm
www.kycbs.net/Claims-Branch-Kamehameha.htm
www.kycbs.net/Claims-Branch-Marsh-McLennan.htm
www.kycbs.net/Claims-Branch-P-C.htm
www.kycbs.net/BH-CHRON-88-96.htm
www.kycbs.net/BH-CHRON-97-99.htm
http://starbulletin.com/specials/bishop/story2.html
Equity 2048 - The Goodenow Report
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~rroth/Goodenow%20Report.pdf
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
The Na Kumu Book Advisory Group
www.kycbs.net/NaKumuBook-6-10-4.htm
www.kycbs.net/NaKumuBook-6-12-4.htm
www.kycbs.net/Doc-Guttman-To-AAA-6-19-4.pdf
Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement & 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 WOO VS. HARMON WITNESS INDEX
Website: www.kycbs.net
Forum: www.voy.com/129276/
* * * * *
CHRONOLOGY
July 1, 2005: Originally posted on www.the-catbird-seat.net
March 13, 2007: Judge David Ezra signs Order to shut down website
January 13, 2010: Latest update on www.kycbs.net
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