Crooks and Cronies: Who's Cashing in on the 2017-18 OHA Check Register

By Andrew Walden @ 9:34 PM :: 9534 Views

by Andrew Walden

Hawai’i Free Press has obtained a copy of the Fiscal Year 2017-18 Office of Hawaiian Affairs check register in response to an open records request.

The register shows 2,495 checks totaling $38,664,288.87. View the check register here:

Highlights found by searching the register include

$19,692.50 paid to Awareness Technologies, Inc (for software used to spy on OHA internal email and computer use)
$919,726.00 paid to OHA LLCs -- Hi’ilei Aloha, LLC, Hi’ipaka, LLC, and Ho’okipaipai, LLC. OHA Trustee Dan Ahuna calls OHAs LLCs ‘a profitable model’ yet they keep getting subsidies year after year. See: Lawsuit: OHA Uses Corporations to Sidestep Open Meetings Law, Loot Assets, Line Cronies' Pockets
$300,000.00 paid to Kanu o Ka Aina PCS. Flashback: “OHA Chair’s Charter School Gets Seven Times More Than All Other Charters Combined”
$335,182.05 paid to Broken Trust DC Lobbyists Marsh USA Inc.
$358,570.58 paid to University of Hawaii
$166,273.86 paid to Spire. See: Financial Services: OHA Spire Contract Balloons 760% in Two Years
$14,949,621.18 paid to Director of Finance or OHA (payroll)

Not In Good Standing per BREG

Robin Danner Etal -- $107,896.88

Kakaako ‘Planning’ – $439,991.58

WCIT -- $352,345.10
DTL -- $85,146.48
Na Kama Kai (DTL-connected ‘non’-profit $2,500.00)
See: “Ethics Complaint: OHA Insiders Take Kickbacks from Kakaako Makai Projects”

Misc. Cronies

Mystery Money

$8,553.96 paid to SN Golf Enterprises (DCCA filings delinquent)
$6,268.00 paid to S.Y. TAN, MD (somebody’s medical bill?)
$39,000.00 paid to the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation Huh?
$175,966.07 paid to Forest Solutions, LLC (owned by Mrs. Michael Saalfeld) See: “Secrecy surrounds Parker Ranch's sale of 3,509 acres to biofuel pioneer” and “Parker Ranch files lawsuit against German industrialist’s 3,500-acre purchase.”
Kooler Ice (vending machine co) – $943.67 (A new Kooler Ice machine sits on OHA property at Fisherman’s Wharf site)

Over $1.8M to Lawyers

$57,910.19 to ES&A, INC which, among other things, is defending the OHA LLCs refusal to comply with Hawaii’s open records laws. See: Lawsuit: OHA-Owned Corporations Must Comply With Open Records Laws and OHA’s Hidden LLCs: Why Plead Guilty to Stealing $14M?
$354,134.92 paid to McCorriston Miller.
$254,568.76 paid to Alston Hunt.
$1,069,506.80 paid to Native Hawaiian Legal Corp.

Over $3.7M to Banks

$3,378,987.16 paid to Bank of Hawaii. (See: Surprise: Entire OHA Trust Fund Frozen by Gentry Pacific Boondoggle)
$402,901.39 paid to First Hawaiian.

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