Pacifist pot minister Reverend Roger Christie has been 
White Collar Crime Is Hawaii’s Dirty Little Secret.
Kimura Busted In 20 Year Multimillion Dollar Ponzi Scheme On Maui.
Grow or sell pot and you are called a danger and may even get no bail – look at Roger Christie. But steal 23 million dollars over 20 years and you are free to roam the community and to use those ill gotten gains for your defense.
Hawaii county prosecutor Jay Kimura’s brother, Lloyd Kimura has been charged criminally for running a multimillion dollar ponzi scheme on Maui that began 1985.
While Jay was prosecuting medical marijuana patients and over 400 people last year alone for under 1 ounce of marijuana, his brother was stealing millions from Hawaii county residents. Jay put 63 year old David Finely in prison for 20 years and 23 year old Sequoia Heuer in prison for 10 years for marijuana. How many years do you think his brother should get for stealing 23 million dollars? Will he even see a day in jail? He hasn’t yet.
This case raises some other serious questions: Was any of the money used for political campaigns? Has it bought influence? The corrupt culture and white collar crime in Hawaii — including the Hawaii county police department and prosecutor’s office — over the years should concern us all. The police cheating scandal, the Mathison murder case, the missing $50,000.00 dollars from police evidence lockers, the Kamaaina Pumping scandal, bulldozer gate and Pohakuloa tack coat are just a few of the more well know incidents of corrupt culture in Hawaii county. In all that, only Mathison went to jail, the police had exonerated him, but the community rebelled and only after months of community pressure and protest did the Mathison murder get prosecuted. Jay Kimura has said he will not prosecute a police officer. And he doesn’t — he also does not go after white collar crime in the county of Hawaii. That has led to a culture of lawlessness, and as a result many crimes go unpunished, but marijuana crimes get massive resources and a high priority.
Maui businessman Lloyd Kimura was charged with two counts of prohibited securities practice and two counts of making false or misleading financial statements, by the State of Hawaii Attorney general. Filed in 2nd Circuit Court on Monday. The complaint was announced Thursday evening. The criminal charges come on the heals of civil suits filed earlier this year. Kimura’s criminal attorney, Phil Lowenthal, has been talking with prosecutors for some time. Kimura was able to avoid the normal grand jury indictments that many marijuana defendants face as a result of a deal he cut with prosecutors from the state.
Kimura, president of Maui Industrial Loan & Finance Co., ran a certified public accounting firm, Lloyd Y. Kimura Inc., on Maui for many years, he is 61 years old.
The criminal complaint charges that from June 30, 2008, to June 30, 2009, Kimura filed false or misleading statements and failed to provide other statements required by law on behalf of Maui Industrial Loan. The documents in question were filed with the Financial Institutions Division of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.
According to the complaint Lloyd Kimura initiated a scheme to defraud people in amounts greater than $100,000, between February 2007 and June 2009 using offers to purchase and sell various securities.
In November, the state Division of Financial Institutions ordered Maui Industrial/ Maui Finance ( MILFCO) to stop taking deposits and the business imploded. Mr. Kimura has owned and managed Maui Finance for decades. Kimura, acknowledged during depositions earlier this year that he had used money from late investors to pay off early investors, without really generating income from operations.
In civil court the trustee in the Maui Industrial Finance Co. bankruptcy case, Dane Field, has sued 25 investors to recover money they received as interest on their original investment or deposit, Field contends the money was not really interest but the fruits of a Ponzi scheme.
The scam used a loan company also known as Maui Finance, that did little or no legitimate business. Mr Kimura would take money from new investors (or depositors) and use it to pay interest or dividends to previous investors (or depositors). Much like the infamous ponzi scheme Bernie Madoff ran, also for years. It will be interesting to see if Mr. Kimura actually goes to prison. Where are the feds in this case? With Jay Kimura’s connections to prosecutors and law enforcement around the state will his brother get special treatment? With the massive amount of money involved will Kimura buy his freedom? Roger Christie is in jail with no bail all his assets seized while Kimura is free and is using stolen money to mount a defense. Justice in Hawaii seems to be for sale based on who you know IMO. The feds should take over this case to remove the appearance of or actual subversion of justice.
Most of the money Kimura stole was in cash from people that trusted him, in one incident, he took $2 million from one person. In depositions, Kimura is purported to have admitted he had been operating a Ponzi scheme almost from the day he became sole owner of the company around 1985. As the only officer and director he made all the decisions. Other than Mr. Kimura Maui Finance had just one employee, an office manager.
The liabilities total nearly $23 million in the two separate bankruptcy filings and are very similar. It is still unclear how much money Maui Finance took in over the years. Some investors thought they were depositors in a bank, others may have known they were speculative lenders. One RNI invested $1 million, and received stock, totaling 40 percent ownership of Maui Financial. It appears this was a fraud also as 100 percent of the firm’s stock appears to have already have been used to secure a bank loan.
The facts appear to indicate Maui Finance wasn’t making loans. Its payouts of interest were really distributions of new capital from new investors or depositors, in a classic ponzi scheme. It looks like premeditated theft from anyone Kimura could get to trust him. For me this raises questions about his brother Jay’s access to the asset seizure funds under his control in Hawaii county, That fund has little if any over site and has never been audited. It too runs in the millions too the order of roughly 3 million dollars per year according to the Hawaii county prosecutors budget. Jay Kimura is prosecuting legal medical patients and refusing to obey the voter passed law on marijuana in Hawaii county. It really looks like prosecutions are prioritized by how much money they add to his budget even at the expense of existing laws. In light of everything we know now the legislative auditor needs to immediately audit the Hawaii county prosecutors office in my opinion. Contempt for our laws by the Hawaii county prosecutor and the culture of looking the other way when it comes to white collar crime by his department demand an audit. With millions of dollars basically in a slush fund with no oversite the temptation may be to great particularly when its clear he uses laws to suit his personal agenda, part of which seems to center around getting more money into the asset fund.
The way Ponzi scheme’s work, depositors who get in early get paid more money than they put in, but investors who came in late end up getting little or nothing. The way asset funds work they could be used for political or personal gain at the prosecutors discretion.
Kimura falsely claimed he could pay between 8 percent and 15 percent, but typically 12 percent, while certificates of deposit where paying only 1 percent or 2 percent. Kimura told potential investors he was re-lending the money at very high rates of interest. That appears to be a complete fabrication.
Things began to unravel when one of the big investors, the one who put up $1 million dollars to buy a 40 percent interest in Maui Financial in 1999, wanted to sell its interest back to Kimura. After seven years, the Iwamoto (Roberts Hawaii) family, (RNI) demanded $2.5 million.
That was the principal with the interest they would have earned at 12 percent. Kimura agreed to buy them out, and made payments of around $1 million, but failed to pay the remaining $1.5 million. RNI sued and was awarded nearly $2 million. That was the end of the scam he had successfully run for so many years.
When the state issued its order against taking deposits it set off a run on the bank as investors scrambled to try and get their money back. Some depositors had left their money with Kimura for many years and never taken any out while some of the lucky ones had been paid with other peoples money.
At his deposition Kimura was ask: “And is it your testimony that you also made payments to the investors from money you borrowed from other four investors?” Kimura replied: “Yes, and myself. I would put money in from my various companies. If the – if the need – the need for funds was there I would put money in.” Kimura went on to say he did this from the start.
The state attorney general and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had been investigating this for some time before charges were brought, however Mr.Kimura was free and likely moved assets around or hid them. That is the opposite of what we see in the marijuana cases were assets are seized right away, including many times family homes that have been owned for years, cars money and anything else of value.
Arraignment, is scheduled at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday before Circuit Judge Joseph Cardoza. Prohibited securities practice is a class A felony with a maximum penalty of 20 years or a fine of $50,000 or both. Making false financial statements is a class C felony with a maximum penalty of five years or a fine of $20,000 or both.
Mr. Kimura’s problems and victims don’t end there. Other law suits are pending against Kimura by people who took promissory notes, with claims ranging from $1 million to more than $2 million. What passes for justice in Hawaii is outrageous. Americans accused of marijuana crimes that generally are between consenting parties and rarely if ever have victims are held without bail as dangerous and have their assets seized. While crimes like Mr. Kimura committed, where there are clear and identified victims he is allowed to use his assets and remain free. Mr. Kimura did far more harm to the people of Hawaii than Roger Christie ever did. Yet he is given every chance to defend himself and allowed to hide and convert assets and use those assets to defend himself. Roger is a political prisoner that is obvious, he is a minnow when compared to the criminal Kimura. Free Roger Christie and give his cell to Lloyd Kimura. That would be justice, to do any less is just another scam.
I believe the legislative auditor needs to audit the Hawaii county prosecutors office immediately.
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Ref:
- Hawaii County Police saga 10 years on
- ACLU of Hawai’i Defends Free Speech Rights Of Former Police Officer Who Criticized Officials
- Police chief to step down at year’s end
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