COURT RULES OHA MUST MAKE ITʻS LLC CHECK LEDGERS PUBLIC
Hawai`i Free Press - March 29, 2019 - By Andrew Walden
Oahu First Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Crabtree has ruled.
Limited Liability Corporations (LLCs) owned and controlled by the State of Hawaii Office of Hawaiian Affairs are subject to the State Uniform Information Practices Act (UIPA).
Hawai’i Free Press editor Andrew Walden applied to the court for an order directing three of OHA’s seven LLCs to release their check registers.
OHA has poured over $34M into its seven LLCs—contradicting attorney Kimberly Greeley, “represent(ing) Hi’ilei Aloha, LLC, Ho’okele Pono, LLC, and Hi’ipaka LLC” who, in January, 2017, falsely claimed “the State … does not provide any funding for the Companies.”
To find out where the money went, Hawai’i Free Press, in November, 2016, filed a separate open records request for the entire check register for three of the LLCs. After two months of stalling, the LLCs then-attorney Greeley wrote back claiming that the LLCs were private organizations and they—and their assets such as Waimea Valley--were no longer property of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
Since that shocking response from Greely, The LLC check registers have been sought by attorneys for Abigail Kawananakoa, by OHA Trustees, and by an auditing firm hired by OHA to look at the LLCs. None of them have yet succeeded in making the records public. Greeley did not represent the LLCs in court.
After five months of litigation, Judge Crabtree, March 29, 2019, issued a seven page ‘Minute Order’ proclaiming:
“…Managers have explicitly limited OHA's access to information, and reserved their right to continue to do so….”
“The court finds as a matter of law that each (LLC) is an ‘agency’ for UIPA purposes….”
“It is apparently not disputed that OHA is an instrumentality of the State of Hawai’i….”
“…the court finds as a matter of law that OHA owns, and has authority and control over the operation and management of the LLC’s operations….”
...Desperate to keep the LLCs secrets, OHA insiders are already planning counter strategies...
