OHA CFO: We Keep Trustees in the Dark About LLCs

by Andrew Walden

At the tail end of a 403 page document dump filed November 30, 2018 in Walden v Hiilei Aloha LLC, etal (with yours truly as plaintiff), attorneys attempting to conceal the financial information of OHA’s LLCs included this nugget from OHA’s Chief Financial Officer: 

DECLARATION OF DAVID LAEHA

I, DAVID LAEHA, do hereby declare:

1. I am an employee of the State of Hawaii and the Chief Financial Officer of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs ("OHA").

2. I am also a Manager of Hi'ilei Aloha, LLC ("Hi'ilei"), Ho'okele Pono LLC (''Ho'okele Pono''), and Hi'ipaka LLC ("Hi'ipaka") (collectively, the "Respondents").

3. This Declaration is in support of Respondents' Supplemental Briefing.

4. As a matter of practice, the Managers restrict the Office of Hawaiian Affairs' ("OHA") access to the information of the Respondents so as to reserve managerial powers in the Managers, as contemplated in Respondents' operating agreements. Managers have explicitly limited OHA's access to information, and reserved their right to continue to do so….

Since Laeha and the other OHA-appointed “Managers” of OHA’s LLCs are top executives of OHA, “limit OHA’s access to information” in practice means OHA administration limits OHA Trustees' access to LLC information and will continue to do so.

Friend of the Court briefs supporting Walden's position were submitted to the Court November 2 by Tax Foundation Hawaii and the Civil Beat Law Center. 

Rather than getting on with the case, the LLCs are wasting even more OHA beneficiary dollars to litigate in defense of an anti-transparency policy which runs directly against the interests of OHA beneficiaries.  Attorney Anna Elento-Sneed, representing Hiilei Aloha, Hookele Pono, and Hiipaka, is now attempting to force the recusal of First Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Crabtree in a hearing set for January 11, 2019.

---30--- 

PDF: Declaration of David Laeha

Documents:

• PDF: Plaintiff Application for Order
• PDF: Defendants Memo in Opposition
• PDF: Plaintiffs Reply Memo
• LINK: Case# 1SP181000301
• LINK: Tax Foundation Amicus and related material
• PDF: Civil Beat Law Center Amicus
• LINK: CB Law Center Walden v Hi'ilei Case Documents  

Background:

• 2018: Lawsuit: OHA-Owned Corporations Must Comply With Open Records Laws
• 2018: Walden versus OHA’s LLCs
• 2018: OHA Audit: LLCs Refuse to Show Check Registers
• 2018: OHA Trustees Confirm Order Requiring LLCs to Open Books
• 2018: Akana: Some OHA LLCs Created Secretly
• 2018: A Month Later Crabbe Still Hasn't Released LLC Records to Trustees
• 2017: Crooks and Cronies: Who’s Getting Paid from the FY 2016-17 OHA Check Register
• 2017: Governing in the Shadows: OHA Scores ‘F’ on Transparency
• 2017: Randy Roth: OHA Copies Bishop Estate--Misusing LLCs to Hide from Law
• 2017: Kawananakoa Letter Debunks OHA LLCs Claim to be Immune from UIPA
• 2017: Princess Kawananakoa criticizes OHA LLCs, demands transparency
• 2017: Hidden LLCs: OHA CEO Lies to Ethics Panel?
• 2017: Conflict of Interest: OHA Audit Committee Member Secretly owns OHA’s Former Poi Mill
• 2017: OHA’s Hidden LLCs: Why Plead Guilty to Stealing $14M?
• 2017: Lawyer: OHA Transferred Waimea Valley to Private Company Controlled by CEO Crabbe
• 2017: Lawsuit: OHA Uses Corporations to Sidestep Open Meetings Law, Loot Assets, Line Cronies' Pockets
• 2017: OHA LLCs—A License to Self-Deal
• 2017: Waimea Valley: OHA’s $20M Secret.