The Unity House Scandal Never Really Ended — decades later, it might bankrupt Hawaiian Electric
by Andrew Walden
The 1990s Unity House scandal never really ended. Decades later, it’s one of the reasons Hawaii’s electricity is so dirty and expensive–contributing to the high cost of living that has now driven the majority of native Hawaiians out of Hawaii.
Here’s the story.
According to the US Department of Justice, June 17, 2002, Roberta LK Cabral, 44:
“entered pleas of guilty a before visiting Senior District Court Judge Manuel L. Real to a total of four counts, including two counts of federal income tax evasion for the tax years 1992 and 1993, one count of willful failure to file an income tax return for the tax year 1994, and one count of participating in a wire fraud scheme to defraud Unity House, Inc….”
“Cabral…further admitted in the plea agreement that she created HONUA Group, LLC, through an unindicted nominee and opened a bank account on November 14, 1997, using her brother's social security number, in order to hide income she received, and in a willful attempt to evade over $118,657.00 in taxes she owed for the calendar years 1992 and 1993….”
Despite Cabral’s guilty plea, conviction, and 10-month prison sentence, she never closed out the corporate vehicle illegally created for these criminal acts. Twenty-eight years later, Cabral’s Honua Group is still registered with DCCA. Honua Group is the ‘consent name’ grantor for Cabral’s Innovations Development Group (IDG). IDG co-owns Waika Consulting LLC.
The Pacific Ring of Fire is on a geothermal construction boom. Geothermal schemes and writing useless reports on the taxpayer dime has been IDG’s specialty since 2008. Scams run by IDG/Waika are the reason volcanic Hawaii still has only one plant producing cheap, clean geothermal electricity.
Over the years, Cabral, aka Inmate #87755-022, and her geriatric sisters-in-crime, ex-OHA Trustee Mililani Trask and ex-Senator Malama Solomon, have been paid by OHA, DHHL, and now UH/DBEDT/HTDC for geothermal reports which merely plagiarize research done by others. Their reports are written without doing any of the test-well drilling needed to identify the location of Hawaii’s geothermal resources. The result: No progress in identifying any Hawaii geothermal resource sites outside the self-evident Kilauea rift zone locations.
Hawai’i Free Press asked Cabral if she believes her criminal background boosts her credibility as a state contractor. She did not respond.
Hawaii’s only geothermal plant--Puna Geothermal Venture (PGV) on the Big Island--was built before IDG/Waika began its long geothermal money grift. Meanwhile, Hawaii’s only statewide geothermal resource assessments were done by UH, in 1985 and 2017, not by IDG/Waika. Today the only geothermal drilling rig in Hawaii is owned by UH, not IDG/Waika.
HECO’s annual savings from total geothermal conversion could be $476M
When the PGV plant re-started after the recent Kilauea lava flows, it was under a new (lower) pricing structure. HNN, January 4, 2020 reported:
“Under the new rate agreement, HECO said the bill for a typical Hawaii Island customer, now paying $182 a month, will drop by about $7.50 in 2022 and about $13 a month in 2023. Hawaiian Electric said the rate it will pay PGV will no longer be tied to the price of power produced by fossil fuels. HECO said it will be paying PGV between 11 and 13 cents per kilowatt hour. The current cost of power generated by burning oil is 18 cents.”
Do the math:
According to Hawaii Electric’s website, HECO produced 6.8 TwH from fossil fuel sources in 2023. 1 TwH = 1 Billion KwH. 0.18 per KwH x 1B = $180M per TwH x 6.8 TwH = $1.224B cost of production for fossil fuel electricity. If all of that electricity were instead produced by geothermal, at 0.11 per KwH, the cost of production would be $110M x 6.8 = $748M. HECO’s annual savings from total geothermal conversion would be $476M.
In a little over two years, geothermal savings would more than cover the entirety of HECO’s $1B contribution to the Lahaina Fire Settlement. The geothermal dividend could even allow HECO to contribute more, thus making the ‘subrogation’ insurers whole and reducing insurance costs statewide.
So geothermal has the potential to:
- save Hawaiian Electric from bankruptcy
- reduce electric rates by as much as 39%
- reduce Hawaii insurance costs
- and thereby reduce the cost of goods sold by local businesses, water bills which could be as much as 40% electricity, and the cost of government.
Illegal Lobbying on Taxpayers’ Dime
The IDG/Waika contract with UH follows a twisted path.
IDG/Waika is currently being paid $2.76M by UH via HTDC for ‘community outreach’ on behalf of geothermal energy under an HRS 103D-102 no-bid sub-contract with no purchase order number dated October 24, 2024. The IDG/Waika sub-contract, #MA2123, is funded by a line-item from the 2024 State Supplemental Budget inserted in Conference Committee as a compromise after a $6M geothermal allocation bill was killed.
Neither IDG, nor Waika, nor their representatives are state-registered lobbyists. According to the Hawaii State Ethics Commission, failure to register can be fined up to $5,000 per violation under HRS 97-7.
Cabral’s signature dated October 31, 2024, appears on a ‘FDP Cost Reimbursement Subaward’ document reading:
“Certification Regarding Lobbying (2 CFR 200.450)--By signing this Subaward, the Subrecipient Authorized Official certifies to the best of his/her knowledge and belief that no Federal appropriated funds have been paid or will be paid, by or on behalf of the Subrecipient, to any person for influencing or attempting to influence an officer or employee of any agency….”
31 U.S.C. 1352 (c)(1) provides the following penalties: “Any person who makes an expenditure prohibited by subsection (a) of this section shall be subject to a civil penalty of not less than $10,000 and not more than $100,000 for each such expenditure."
Waika’s ‘community outreach’ boils down to their state lobbying effort for passage of SB1269. Waika’s November and December, 2024, ‘Project Status Reports’ obtained from UH by Hawai’i Free Press via a UIPA request include these nuggets:
- “Geothermal development” – “Nil”
- “Geosciences Programme Support Services” – “Nil”
- “Funding Applications” – “Initiated Waika legislature support in this sub task is first priority for November, December, January”
- “Meeting with DBEDT Deputy Director”
- “Commenced legislature funding application for 25/26 & 26/27 Phases.”
Instead of ‘taxing the tax’ legislators are ‘subsidizing the subsidy’--paying IDG/Waika to lobby for more taxpayer money.
DHHL followed a different process to funnel money to IDG/Waika.
An Hawai’i Free Press UIPA request obtained the $500K DHHL-Waika contract #71388 awarded June 7, 2023. Documents show a competitive bidding process in which the DHHL ‘Selection Committee’ bizarrely gave Waika a near-perfect score on:
- Experience and Professional Qualifications
- Past Performance
- Capacity of the Firm and Relevant Organizational staff
Despite the Waika team including no engineers, the ‘Selection Committee’ assigned lower scores to five local engineering firms which employ actual engineers: Dudek, EKNA Services Inc, EnviroServices & Training Center LLC, G70, and Tetra Tech.
For $500K, IDG/Waika produced a 43 page geothermal report featuring a rehash of research done by others and 30 pages of useless full-color photos of rocks found on the surface of DHHL properties. That’s $16,666.66 per rock.
2019: Learning the DHHL Contract Award System
Akamai readers will remember Lyon Associates getting DHHL contracts in exchange for a $240,000 kickback. Mililani Trask certainly noticed. As HNN, January 30, 2019, reported:
… Jim Lyon, owner of the Honolulu-based company Lyon Associates, pleaded guilty last week to conspiracy charges in the alleged bribery scheme. Multiple sources say the bribe helped land a $2.5 million DHHL engineering contract on Kauai.
“It’s a system-wide problem, and it’s government graft and corruption," said Mililani Trask, a native Hawaiian attorney and cultural activist. “It’s $240,000 for this incident, but how much was paid for other incidents?”
Apparently Trask learned the DHHL system very well.
Felon, Sellout, Meth Importer’s Friend
Trask admits other Hawaiians recognize her to be ‘a damned sellout’ –she is now off the OHA Board of Trustees. Malama Solomon hasn’t been in the Senate for years. She is a Larry Mehau associate who once appeared in Court to demand leniency for a Kamuela methamphetamines importer. Roberta Cabral is an ex-con and convicted felon. All three are far beyond their ‘best used by’ date. One might expect the IDG/Waika operation to just fade away.
But, no. The $500K from DHHL and $2.7M from HTDC are just a warm-up for what may be their biggest haul ever—a cut of $20M from bills before the Hawaii Legislature.
How? Sen. Donovan Delacruz.
Cabral is a $4000 donor to Dela Cruz (Dates: $2000 on Jan 13, 2023 and another $2000 on Feb 7, 2023). After signing the DHHL contract on behalf of IDG/Waika, IDG ‘manager’ Charish Correa, suddenly became a $2000 donor to Dela Cruz (Date: Aug 7, 2023). Cabral is also a $3,300 donor to Sen WAM member Michelle Kidani (Dates: 2018-2022).
The University of Hawaii is the pass-through entity on the $2.76M HTDC-Waika contract. DBEDT oversees HTDC. The Deputy Director of DBEDT is Dela Cruz’ Mamaki tea-bagging business partner, Dane Wicker. This should help readers to understand what is actually going on when Senators Dela Cruz and Mercado Kim stage their annual dressing-down of UH administrators.
Hawai’i Free Press asked UH Vice President for Research and Innovation Vassilis Syrmos if he believes such contracts are the 'cost of doing business' with the Legislature? He did not respond.
2016: Learning the Dela Cruz Contract Award System
The IDG crowd wasn’t always aligned with Dela Cruz. A 2016 ethics complaint co-authored by Mililani Trask alleged DTL—“a group made up of previous OHA employees” part-owned by Dela Cruz – was part of a consortium paying kickbacks to OHA insiders who steered useless Kakaako Makai design contracts.
Trask’s interest in OHA corruption came only after Trustees declined to double down on the $1.25M of OHA money given to IDG for useless geothermal work in 2013.
Having figured out Dela Cruz’ modus operandi, IDG personnel then became Dela Cruz campaign contributors.
$20M on the Line
As of the February 28, 2025, ‘First Decking’ deadline, two geothermal bills survive:
HB1307 – Amended as HD2, approved by House, crossed over to Senate. “Appropriates funds to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands for water well development for geophysical investigation, exploration, and identification of geothermal resources on Hawaiian home lands. Effective 7/1/3000.” (Report: Will appropriate $20M.)
SB1269 – Amended as SD1, approved by Senate, crossed over to House. “Appropriates funds to the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism for continued exploration and identification of geothermal resources and commercial viability for utility-scale geothermal production in counties with a population of less than 300,000. Effective 7/1/2050.”
IDG’s unregistered lobbyists are openly lobbying for SB1269 and against HB1307.
After crossover a game of chicken has been set up. SB1269 has a difficult triple referral in the House. HB1307 has a double referral, including Dela Cruz' WAM.
Both bills’ ‘effective’ dates are ‘defective’, meaning the real bill will be written in conference committee (if it gets that far) and then rushed down to the floor for a vote before anybody can figure out what is really going on.
The Green Administration has moved Heaven and Earth to arrange a Lahaina Settlement designed to keep Hawaiian Electric out of bankruptcy. Will legislators turn around and unwittingly sacrifice HECO to Mainland vulture capitalists because they are too busy rewarding small-time Dela Cruz cronies?
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IDG SCHEMERS BACKGROUND: