Kona Residents Picket Against Michaels Management

News Release from Lei Kupuna and Lei Ohana Resident Organizations, Sept 28, 2024

In December 2023, the FBI conducted a raid of the managers’ apartment and the Lei Ohana office at Kamakana Villages, seizing computers and other items implicated in the production of child pornography.

Ten felony counts of Promoting Child Abuse were levied against the managers’ family member in April 2024.

Despite this taking place in a community filled with children the managing agent, Michaels Management-Affordable, LLC (MMA) allowed the manager to continue living and working at Kamakana Villages.

This cover-up comes on the heels of a June 2024 indictment in New Jersey of The Michaels Organization, CEO John O’Donnell and other co-conspirators for racketeering, coercion and extortion involving alleged fraudulent collection of millions of dollars in government-issued tax credits and influencing government officials.

Kamakana Villages, also known as Lei Ohana and Lei Kupuna affordable housing apartments, has been a hotbed of years long conflicts between residents and MMA parent company, The Michaels Organization (TMO). Over the years, there have been numerous legal complaints initiated by Kamakana Villages residents with the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission, Fair Housing, Hawaii Legal Aid, private attorneys and police.

On Sept. 7, 2024, residents picketed to protest the negligent and abusive management of Michaels Management-Affordable, LLC.

The state oversight entity for Kamakana Villages, Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation (HHFDC) tasked with the “operation of the project” have been notified repeatedly over the past six years about MMA violations involving the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program (LIHTC), Landlord Tenant Code, and the Lease Agreement; yet little, if anything, has been done by HHFDC.

Residents are crying out to HHFDC for immediate intervention and replacement of MMA.

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PDF: Kiddie Porn Indictment

Oct 2023: The Michaels Organization Names Sharon Har a Vice President of Development

Mar 2024: HHFDC Selects Insiders to Develop Kapolei Parcel

June 2024: Michaels CEO Indicted: 12-year racketeering conspiracy