Woo vs. Harmon - Witness Joe Tanaka

David C. Farmer, Successor-Trustee vs. Harmon

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

CV05-00030 DAE KSC

U.S. District Court For the District of Hawaii

Judges: David A. Ezra; Kevin S. Chang

—

DEFENDANT’S WITNESS

JOE TANAKA

Former State Senator from Maui.

Holt’s party guests

BY all claims, Milton Holt was not lobbying state legislators when he picked up the tab at restaurants and hostess bars with his Bishop Estate credit card. The legislators either deny or can't remember the nights out on the town and the estate has denied incurring local lobbying expenses. Those explanations are not easy to accept.

Holt, a former state senator and the estate's special-projects officer, spent a total of $21,000 with an estate credit card at local strip joints, hostess bars and Las Vegas casinos since 1992. That does not include $2,500 that Holt charged on the estate's Visa cards entertaining legislators at local restaurants and drinking establishments between 1992 and 1997.

The Star-Bulletin's Rick Daysog reports that Holt listed Senate President Norman Mizuguchi and Sen. Robert Bunda as his guests on Feb. 10, 1993, at the Crystal Palace hostess bar, where the $540.50 tab was paid with the Bishop Estate card. At the Monte Carlo hostess bar, Holt listed Mizuguchi, Bunda and Sen. Joe Tanaka as his guests for a credit card charge of $751 in August 1992, and Bunda, House Finance Chairman Calvin Say and House Judiciary Chairman Terrance Tom for a $260 tab in April 1993.

Holt listed the lawmakers as his guests in submissions to the Internal Revenue Service, which is investigating the estate's finances. Mizuguchi and Bunda deny being treated by Holt at hostess bars and Tanaka says he can't remember. Tom could not be reached for comment. Mizuguchi's denial prompted Holt to say he meant to write the name of Sen. Richard Matsuura, who died of cancer last year so is unable to deny the allegation.

Holt named Mizuguchi and other legislators as his guests at restaurants at lesser costs in 1995 and 1996. None would admit it, although receiving such gratuities and not disclosing it probably does not violate state ethics rules.

Holt says he has reimbursed the Bishop Estate for all charges he made with the credit card. However, the repayments apparently came only after the estate made a "salary adjustment" that allowed him to do so. The question is whether Bishop Estate was willingly footing the bill for Holt's escapades in the belief that he was lobbying legislators until the estate's trustees began getting heat from the IRS and the state attorney general. Bishop Estate Archive

http://starbulletin.com/98/05/01/editorial/index.html

~ ~ ~

Senator Joseph Tanaka is expected to testify regarding his business, political, professional and personal relationships with Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate; Yukio Takemoto; Lokelani Lindsey; Milton Holt; Calvin Say; Marshall Ige; Joseph Souki; Norman Mizuguchi; Robin Matsunaga; Everett Dowling, Kulamalu LP; Henry Peters; Linda Lingle; James “Kimo” Apana; Maui County Council; Maui County Planning Commission; Judith Neustadter Fuqua; Ray Fuqua, Dan Case, Steve Case, Mary Lou Woo; Steven Guttman; Robert Kessner; James Duca; Margery Bronster; Earl Anzai; Steve Goodenow, James Nicholson, David C. Farmer, and others to be named upon discovery.