by Andrew Walden
Governor John Waihee’s ‘Foreclosure Hour’ AM830 radio host, attorney Gary V Dubin, is being investigated for alleged violations of the Hawaii Rules of Professional Conduct by the State Office of Disciplinary Counsel (ODC).
Interviewed by HawaiiFreePress.com, Bruce Kim, Chief of ODC was tight-lipped about the Dubin case. According to Kim, formal proceedings against Dubin began ‘this spring’ and a hearing officer appointed by the Board of Disciplinary Counsel will next be presenting the case to the Disciplinary Bard of the Hawaii Supreme Court for review. Kim would not reveal what type of discipline is being recommended.
Dubin himself says the case is, “about the typical borrower who blames his attorney whenever things do not go well in Court or he wants his money back…. I have had to battle the establishment here while drawing clients from the general public, and unfortunately some members of the general public are less than intelligent and some frankly dishonest.”
Dubin’s “establishment” co-host Waihee, in 2012, agreed to pay his part of $1.3M in damages from the Right Star burial plan scam. Waihee is listed as an attorney at the Dubin Law Office.
A search of the Hawaii Judiciary ‘Ho’ohiki’ and Federal PACER databases reveals:
Malia Arciero, the former ‘Portlock Madam’, (case #1:18-cv-00090), represented by attorney Thomas Otake, filed a March 12, 2018 appeal of her conviction on four counts of methamphetamines trafficking based on “a single ground for relief … a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel against Gary Victor Dubin….”
Rodney Y Sato, February 3, 2016, (case #16-1-0215-02), represented by attorneys Eric Seitz, Della Au Bellati, and Sarah Rose Devine, suing Dubin for legal malpractice in a contract dispute with Wahiawa Hospital.
Dubin is also accused of wrongdoing by former mortgage foreclosure clients Robert and Carmelita Andia (case #16-1-0483-03) and separately by well-known Punatic Len Horowitz.
Kim explains the purposes of ODC include “protect(ing) the public from unethical conduct and uphold(ing) the integrity of the (legal) profession.” According to Kim, discipline can be either Private or Public. Types of Public Discipline include: Reprimand, Suspension, and Disbarment.
Dubin says “ODC presently is (an) operating, scandal-ridden, quasi-government institution….”
Dubin served 19 months in a California federal prison, convicted on three federal misdemeanor counts of failure to file federal tax returns. His convictions were upheld on appeal to the 9th Circuit Court. The convictions led to “Public reproval with/duties” from the California Bar Association but he did not face discipline from the Hawaii Bar and resumed his law practice in Honolulu upon his release in October, 1996. Dubin has been re-litigating the case in the press ever since.
Dubin acknowledges being appointed “acting Attorney General” of Keanu Sai’s ‘Hawaiian Kingdom’ group in December, 1995 “so that I could go to The Hague…and argue the case for the Hawaiian Kingdom for history”. He says he quit, “when Sai started to try to jail Hawaii Judges and arrest some and take them to the International Criminal Court as War Criminals.” According to HawaiianKingdom.org, Dubin resigned July 21, 2013.
Sai was convicted March 7, 2000 on a single count of Class B felony theft stemming from his involvement in the so-called “Perfect Title” scam in which over 400 Hawaiian households were conned into forking out $1500 each to Sai and his company in exchange for worthless title search documents purporting to show that any title issued after the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom was invalid.
The Hawaii DCCA June 9, 2011 revoked Dubin’s mortgage license and another mortgage license held by Dubin Financial, LLC, after discovering Dubin omitted his federal criminal conviction from his mortgage solicitor’s application. Dubin appealed the revocations all the way to the Intermediate Court of Appeals and lost in a 2015 decision.
In the 2009 Hawaii Federal District Court case CFTC v WeCorp, Dubin was named as a relief defendant who allegedly “received ill-gotten gains” from a Hilo-based Ponzi scheme known as ‘WeCorp’. In the end, his firm was dismissed from the case and the government was ordered to pay Dubin’s legal fees.
Dubin was Treasurer of the Homeowners Super PAC which was administratively terminated by the Federal Election Commission February 9, 2015 after failing to file FEC reports of income and expenditures. Dubin’s Hawaii-registered committee of the same name—with John Waihee III serving as Chairperson--was terminated October 21, 2014. There is no record of contributions or expenditures available on the Hawaii CSC website.
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E Court Kokua: SCAD-18-0000497 ODC v Gary Victor Dubin