by Andrew Walden
OHA Trustees are having a hard time obtaining the cooperation of their own LLCs.
On the agenda of the OHA Trustees Committee on Resource Management meeting at Na Lama Kukui, Wednesday, January 31, 2018 9:00AM:
RM 18-02: Authorization to Compel LLC Managers to Submit Necessary LLC Documents to the Resource Committee Chair for the Purpose of the Audit Authorized by the Board of Trustees A.l. RM 17-02.
Akamai readers will remember, Hawai’i Free Press has been attempting to obtain the OHA LLCs’ check registers since 2016. We reported on the result in January, 2017:
Honolulu attorney Kimberly Greeley, “represent(ing) Hi’ilei Aloha, LLC, Ho’okele Pono, LLC, and Hi’ipaka LLC” in a January 9 response to an open records request from Hawai’i Free Press claims:
“Sole title to the land comprising Waimea Valley was transferred to Hi’ipaka LLC (by OHA) in 2007. The State does not own the valley nor any of Hi’ipaka’s other assets…. Nor is Hi’ipaka operated or managed by the State…. In sum, the State does not control or direct any of the Companies’ activities or business affairs and does not provide any funding for the Companies. The Companies activities are not a required function of any government agency. The Companies are not, therefore subject to the provisions of the UIPA.”
Of course all of this is nonsense. Waimea Valley and all of the LLCs are still 100% owned by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. The LLCs are State property and therefore completely subject to UIPA. OHA owns a total of six LLCs and OHA’s ownership is completely documented with the DCCA BREG at the links below:
Falsely pleading her clients guilty to multiple counts of grand theft ‘aina is an act of desperation if their ever was one. It might also be professional misconduct. What is Greeley trying to hide? What might be found if the LLCs are obligated to hand over their compete check registers to Hawai’i Free Press?
Office of Hawaiian Affairs financial statements record $13M in expenses attributed to Hi’ilei Aloha and Hi’ipaka since 2009. The partial record from IRS form 990s filed by some of the LLCs show extensive money transfers between the LLCs and fat salaries paid out to OHA insiders.
Immediately after the RM committee meets, the full OHA Board of Trustees is set for 930AM with an executive session agenda including this juicy tidbit:
“Consultation with Robert G. Klein, Esq. re: questions and issues pertaining to the Board’s powers, duties, privileges, immunities, and liabilities regarding the State Auditor’s Draft Audit Report. Pursuant to HR$ § 92-5(a)(4)”
The word from sources inside OHA is the State Auditor’s report on OHA is accurate and honest and therefore very damaging to OHA cronies who have been desperately delaying the release for several months now. Under HRS 10-14-55 the State Auditor is expected to report on OHA once ever four years. The last OHA Audit was 2013.
Meanwhile state legislators are considering SB3090 which would transfer 10,000 acres at the top of Mauna Kea from the University of Hawaii to a “Mauna Kea Management Authority.”
Transferring the Mauna directly to OHA is a non-starter because even Hawaii legislators cannot stomach the likelihood that OHA would allow the Mauna to be stolen by private LLCs as lawyer Greeley asserts Waimea Valley has been. OHA’s corruption is the primary obstacle preventing OHA from gaining more control of--and revenue from--ceded lands.
---30---
RELATED: