Public Corruption Explosion Surrounds America’s Largest Drug Trafficking Ring, Tying Russian and Japanese Narco-Empire to Hawaii Kingpin, Paul J. Sulla, Jr.
Federal Probes of Unprecedented Number of Cases Overlooks Deep State ‘Octopus’ Obstructing Justice in ‘Predatory Courts’
Foreword by
Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz and Sherri Kane
May 15, 2019
Introduction
We’ve been SCREAMING about Hawaii’s public corruption damaging the whole United States for years. Now mainstream news is heralding the “tip of the iceberg” dripping from the heat we have brought as leading journalists in this crisis.
Paradise’s ‘Judicial Racket’ is unprecedented. The lower levels of ‘The Mob’ are now making headline news. But it is unlikely federal investigations with reach the highest levels. Why?
You will read below several disgusting generally-concealed facts that tie into our ongoing lawsuits to regain our stolen property in Hawaii’s drug capital—Pahoa, HI. Our house and health spa were stolen by demonically-possessed judges who aided-and-abetted Hawaii’s leading drug (‘DMT’) kingpin, Paul J. Sulla, Jr. Sulla is the leading trafficker of the estimated $1 Billion ‘designer LSD’ hallucinogenic drug called “DMT.” That ‘hoasca’ damages people nationwide, yet is being promoted as a ‘cure’ for lost souls and traumatized veterans. Sulla’s acts have been aided-and-abetted by ‘willfully-blind’ courts and law enforcers. State AND federal officials reported below have protected Sulla’s racketeering enterprise for the past decade under our watch (and probably longer). The obstruction of justice reported below defies credulity and the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal, 546 U.S. 418 (2006).
In Gonzales, the Supreme Court enjoined the government’s stoppage of DMT imports from the church in South American shipped to religious officials in the United States. “Scientists have devoted little research to the physical and psychological effects of ceremonial hoasca consumption. Id. The lack of knowledge about hoasca, relative to many other substances, forms the core of the dispute between the parties in this case.” (O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal v. Ashcroft, 282 F. Supp. 2d 1236 – Dist. Court, D. New Mexico 2002). That federal court denied Ashcroft’s case, but clarified its need for continuing diligence, thusly:
The court entered a preliminary injunction prohibiting the Government from enforcing the Controlled Substances Act with respect to the UDV’s importation and use of hoasca. The injunction requires the church to import the tea pursuant to federal permits, to restrict control over the tea to persons of church authority, and to warn particularly susceptible UDV members of the dangers of hoasca. See Preliminary Injunction ¶¶ 2, 5-12, 32-33, App. F to App. to Pet. for Cert. 249a, 250a-252a, 258a-259a. The injunction also provides that “if [the Government] believe[s] that evidence exists that hoasca has negatively affected the health of UDV members,” or “that a shipment of hoasca contain[s] particularly dangerous levels of DMT, [the Government] may apply to the Court for an expedite[d] determination of whether the evidence warrants suspension or revocation of [the UDV’s authority to use hoasca].” Id., at 257a, ¶ 29.
Since that 2006 Supreme Court affirmation, ‘huasca tea’ use across America has exploded, and not without deaths and damages. Aside from numerous reports of ‘bad trips’ and even several deaths, a recent Hawaii case sums the situation. Attempted murder charges were dropped by prosecutors “from the list of charges brought against a Kapaa man who demolished the house of his former boss with a machete and told police he did so under the influence of [ayahusaca] because, ‘He owes me choke ahi [i.e., fish].’”
There is a high probability the Kapaa man, Forrest Broyles, got his “powerful hallucinogenic drug” through Sulla’s enterprise, since Sulla, a previously publicly censured lawyer, runs the oldest and largest DMT manufacturing plant in Hawaii with his son, Paul J. Sulla, III. It is no secret, thanks to the Internet, that Sulla’s Big Island enterprise manufactures and traffics the bulk of DMT to the mainland from Hilo. The reason being: the brew requires a tropical rain forest to grow the plant from which the drug is extracted. Those ideal rain forests exclusively exist in Hawaii. Ergo, Sulla’s money in billion dollar huasca trade buys a lot of influence in courts and protection against law enforcers.
The World’s Narco-Empire Traffics Through Hawaii
The article reprinted below was published in the ‘Deep State’s’ local propaganda-mill–the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Having been at the forefront of alerting We The People about ‘ayahusaca,’ Sulla, these public corruption matters for years; having been personally involved as victims/witnesses and whistleblowers in these matters, we write here to advise you properly before you read the latest article by Rob Perez.
Perez presents what he says is the “tip of the iceberg.” But his report is a ‘red herring.’ It diverts from the actual ‘iceberg’ that is the ‘NARCO-EMPIRE.” That ‘iceberg’ is not really melting, because it is frozen by fraudulent concealment. The ‘heat’ is clearly on, and largely, but not entirely, coming from us. But the official heat appears to be coming against the ‘old guard’ Deep State narcotics racket that has been controlling Hawaii since the Monarchy was illegally overthrown in 1891. So we advise you as consumer-advocates and intelligence analysts with personal involvements in this growing scandal, to be discerning.
If you understand the strategic location and importance of Hawaii for East-West ‘maritime trade,’ drug trafficking, and human/sex slavery networks, you can instantly sense the importance of our reporting on these matters.
As you read Perez’s article below (reprinted under ‘fair usage doctrine,’ as per our ‘public duty’ to provide informed opinions on socially important news), keep asking yourself: (1) “Where is the Judicial Corruption in this case?” and (2) “Where is the money mainly coming from and going?”
Two tips and two reasons why you need to be asking and answering those two questions:
Here’s the first tip: The Supreme Court of Hawaii is officiated by Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald. His office is where the ‘rubber-meets-the-road’ in ultimately deciding or influencing every major corruption case adjudicated in State.
Hawaii Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald and Subordinates Clifford Nakea and Bradley Tamm face judicial racket complaints.
Recktenwald also oversees the Office of Disciplinary Counsel (ODC) that you will read below is up-to-its-eyeballs in corruption surfacing with its stonewalled investigation of foreclosure fraudster, Gary Victor Dubin who ripped us off of $26,000 much like he has done to countless others. Our mistreatment in Hawaii’s courts, for whistleblowing and reporting the truth about local drug-trafficking, money-laundering, property-stealing kingpin Paul J. Sulla, Jr., (who Dubin aided-and-abetted to steal our property) is unconscionable and inconceivable in America (we thought).
But now, our experience is being echoed by many others. Citizens on both sides of the political isle are exposing corrupt lawyers and judges in growing numbers in Hawaii.
Attorney Mark Seitz, for instance, independently reported deep-seated corruption at the ODC that rocked (for an instant) the Chief of Police Louis Kealoha and his Prosecutor sister Katherine. That’s the ‘Kealoha Scandal’ most widely publicized. That case too involves illegal DRUG TRAFFICKING.
But there are many less known cases ongoing, including ours against Sulla and the ‘predatory courts’ serving as a ‘protection racket’ for the narco-empire.
Bradley Tamm and the Supreme Court of Hawaii Cover-up
Since September, 2018, the outrageously corrupt ODC fell under the direction of Executive Director Bradley Tamm. Tamm was previously suspended by the California State Bar Association for drug abuse, alcohol addiction, embezzling thousands of dollars from clients, and for not paying his victims restitution after getting caught with his hands in their trusts. (Read the official California disciplinary action HERE.)
Incredibly, given this factual history, as though there were no better qualified candidates throughout the entire Hawaii Bar Association, Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald, and Judicial Selection Committee members, including Clifford Nakea, appointed Tamm to be the ‘gatekeeper’ on disciplinary proceedings protecting, not prosecuting, corrupt Hawaii lawyers.
“That speaks to the pattern and practice of positioning criminally-compromised misfits in official posts to secure their allegiance, lest they be subject to further compromise.,” explained J.T. Kong a legal scholar familiar with our case.
Tamm and his alliance with Sulla was solidly evidenced during his representation of federal bankruptcy trustee Howard Hu in the court of Judge Robert Faris in 2016 when Dr. Horowitz’s bankruptcy case was heard. (Faris is also a judge in the United States Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Ninth Circuit.) Both Hu and Faris neglected federal bankruptcy laws to aid-and-abet drug kingpin Sulla’s theft of Horowitz’s one-of-a-kind property. Tamm’s criminally-complicit stewardship with Hu quashed Horowtiz’s ‘reorganization plan,’ and enabled Sulla to steal money from Horowitz and his legitimate creditors, including Horowitz’s competent attorney, Margaret Wille.
Hu, Tamm and Faris railroaded the pro se bankrupted litigant Horowitz. Their ‘cell’ of judicial racketeers purposely neglected the clear-and-convincing evidence entered by Horowitz—public records—showing Sulla had fraudulently foreclosed on Horowitz’s health spa using a fake ‘church’ and forged Assignments of Horowitz’s Mortgage and Notes. Tamm, Hu, and Faris were under oath and duty to ‘avoid’ fraudulent transfers condemned by State statute HRS 651C-4. Instead, they broke the law by conspiring with Sulla to further damage the bankrupted doctor. Horowitz’s bankruptcy was clearly caused by Sulla’s crimes, concealed by complicit court officers—all lawyers and judges waging ‘lawfare’ against us in the Hawaii courts.
The Intermediate Court of Appeals (ICA) of Hawaii in ‘Self-Destruct’ Mode
The three women judges completely disregarded Judge Foley’s decision to not impose transcripts deemed completely unnecessary by Horowitz to prove beyond any reasonable doubt the motion to vacate his $200K jury award was filed much too late, according to HRCP Rule 50b. The women, nonetheless, disregarded all the facts, defied Judge Foley’s ruling, and denied Horowitz’s pleading to STEAL Horowitz’s jury award. They then sent the doctor back to the Third Circuit Court that raped him over-and-over again, to persecute him more.
This ‘Judicial Racket,’ steeped in fraud and crime, is now coming to light following the May 2, 2019 ‘Memorandum Opinion’ issued by the corrupted Intermediate Court of Appeals. This agency operates subordinate to the Recktenwald-directed Supreme Court of Hawaii. Backed into a corner by Horowitz’s ProSeLegalAide.com online weapon against lawfare, and Wille’s clear-and-convincing appeal filings, the appellate judges (Chief Judge Lisa M. Ginoza, Alexa D.M. Fujise, and Katherine G. Leonard) were forced-by-the-facts to admit Sulla had foreclosed ‘wrongly’ on Horowitz’s property. They reversed Sulla’s quiet title victory—a ‘summary judgment’ issued supposedly ‘erroneously’ (actually criminally) by Third Circuit Court judges Ronald Ibarra, Melvin Fujino, and Elizabeth Strance. Each of these Third Circuit Court judges aided-and-abetted Sulla’s heist by denying Horowitz’s standing to defend his own property. It was an obvious railroading favoring Sulla. But the ICA under Sulla’s influence wouldn’t even recognize Sulla’s ‘real party’ interest.
This was not ‘due process.’ This was lawfare in the Sulla-protecting predatory courts, as defined by Dr. Horowitz and leading litigators and scholars cited on ProSeLegalAide.com.
Stuck between a rock-and-a-hard-place, Horowitz wisely pioneered an online weapon to be used by citizens against these kinds of corrupted courts. Horowitz used ProSeLegalAide.com as his self-help defensive weapon. In an effort to survive and thrive, he turned his ‘lemons’ into ‘lemonade’ against ‘lawfare.’ The service is now available for a 30-day free trial to help others ‘similarly situated’ using ProSeLegalAide.com. The annual fee, that can be cancelled at any time, is less than $30.
According to Rule 19 of ‘civil procedure,’ Judges Ginoza, Fujise and Leonard; and also Ibarra, Fujino, and Strance, were to have ‘joined’ Sulla as Horowitz and his attorney moved the courts to do. Instead, these judges did worse than deny those motions and neglect Sulla. They concealed his ‘proper party’ interests, Sulla’s entire theft scheme, including a set of forgeries, one discovered by County Tax Department officials, and in the process obstructed justice.
In essence, the ICA showed their hand, evidencing a ‘pattern-and-practice’ of criminal misrule.
Similar unconscionable Sulla favor was recorded by federal court officers Hu, Tamm and Faris. They were supposed to ‘avoid’ Sulla’s similarly neglected transfers of Horowitz’s properties. That is, they were supposed to act in accordance with State fraudulent transfer law (HRS 651C-4) and Section 544(b)(1) of the Bankruptcy Code. But they recklessly neglected to do so.
Horowitz ‘venomously’ protested against these predators who were obviously supporting Sulla’s land thievery. But the Judicial Racket held to its mischief.
The ICA’s reversal on May 2, 2019, showed the Hawaii judiciary grossly embarrassed and in self-destruct mode. Their Memorandum Opinion conflicted, as mentioned,with fellow Judge Foley’s ruling in that case. You can read this in Dr. Horowitz’s Motion for Reconsideration prepared using ProSeLegalAide.com. The near instant DENIAL of the doctor’s reconsideration motion evidences how far judges Ginoza, Fujise and Leonard stretched credulity to deprive Horowitz of his due process rights and even his $200,000 jury award!
Ginoza, Fujise and Leonard sent us back to the same Third Circuit Court that had maliciously prosecuted, grossly deprived, heavily damaged, and irreparably harmed us.
That’s lawfare in Hawaii. That’s what they do all the time to masses of people, in ‘paradise.’
Hawaii corruption of the courts is so widespread and apparent, as evidenced by people’s horror-stories peppering the Internet, that any reasonable person would ask, “How come the mainstream media, even the so-called ‘independent’ media, isn’t covering these stories?” The fact that Hawaii judges are now being forced to rule against Hawaii judges, like federal prosecutors charging state prosecutors with crimes, is certainly newsworthy. But there’s a blackout.
So why the news censorship?
Because there’s a DRUG WAR ongoing in Hawaii, and no one’s talking about it except us.
There is substantial evidence proving Sulla is operating at the center of a NARCO-ENTERPRISE with the judiciary’s and law-enforcers’ willful blindness. His blatant crimes are consistently neglected, overlooked, and evaded. The willfully-blind complicit courts have aided-and-abetted his drug trafficking and money laundering racket.
The courts and prosecutors have remained silent, paralleling the Hawaii ‘Free Press,’ television and radio. The evidence of conspiracy to defraud citizens is overwhelming. Efforts to conceal and sustain the Hawaii ‘Narco-Empire” is shocking. This pattern and practice of silence alone is incriminating. As Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis explained in United States ex rel. Bilokumsky v. Tod, 263 US 149, 154 – Supreme Court 1923, “Conduct which forms a basis for inference is evidence. Silence is often evidence of the most persuasive character.”
More Federal Judges Complicit in Secreting or Neglecting Sulla’s Crimes and the Narco-Empire
The Judicial Council of the Ninth Circuit is the governing body for the federal district and bankruptcy courts in nine western states and two Pacific island jurisdictions. Newly appointed in 2017 as a voting member of the judicial council is Chief District Judge J. Michael Seabright of the District of Hawaii.
Nearly three years ago, Seabright granted Sulla a reprieve from our prosecution for stealing Horowitz’s estate on the Big Island. Seabright ‘Administratively Stayed’ the $8 million default judgment we gained against Sulla’s lead defense witness in a SLAPP lawsuit Sulla filed to censor our reporting. We won that one too.
During the SLAPP case, Sulla incriminated himself on the witness stand. He plead his 5th Amendment right to remain silent on his drug manufacturing operation. His son, Sulla III, was not so wise. He openly defended his and his father’s ‘drug church’ operations and the alleged benefits of consuming DMT. Later, in Sulla’s Motion to Dismiss our case, CIVIL NO.: CV15-00186 JMS-BMK, Sulla misrepresented to Seabright that his ayahuasca operation had been approved by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Gonzales. Seabright never blinked or balked over Sulla’s misrepresention:
While not at all relevant to the case, [Sulla defended] Plaintiffs allege unlawful church activities . . . referring to a religion that the U.S. Supreme Court has already evaluated and found to be protected under the U.S. Constitution in Church of the Holy Light of the Queen v. Mukasey, 615 F. Supp. 2d 1210 (D. Ore. 2009), “guided by the unanimous decision of the United States Supreme Court in Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal, 546 U.S. 418 (2006)(holding that the federal government could not ban the Daime tea when used for religious purposes).
Seabright responded by stonewalling our case against Sulla and his lead witness, Alma C. Ott—America’s leading White Supremacist. By so doing, Seabright seriously damaged America as a nation as you can read here.
And Seabright did all this, absolutely knowing Sulla was not trustworthy. Why? Because Seabright ruled against Sulla in an earlier (2012) case. In Benoist v. U.S. Bank Nat’l Ass’n, CIVIL NO. 10-00350 JMS-KSC, Seabright found that Sulla had contrived the case against the bank, explaining:
Contrary to Plaintiffs’ [Sulla’s] argument, these email exchanges do not suggest that U.S. Bank provided Sulla the incorrect date — in one email, Sulla wrote that the auction was scheduled for June 22, 2010 as well as July 22, 2010, which more likely suggests that Sulla simply got the dates wrong.
Seabright’s Damages Extend From Sulla and Ott Across America, Enabling Race Riots and the Neo-Nazi Movement
If you’re wondering why we might be so ‘targeted,’ consider this. In 2008, at the peak of candidate Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, his minister, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, directed national news to Horowitz on the issue of HIV/AIDS being a hepatitis B vaccine-induced cancer targeting disproportionately “people of color.” Soon thereafter, Ott & Company began harassing, libeling, and cyber-stalking Horowitz.
Seabright’s actions neglected Sulla’s drug trafficking operation and alliance with Ott. The two men worked together to destroy the two of us.
This is how Seabright contributed substantially to the crisis damaging America today. We watched the anti-government, racist (i.e., anti-Semitic, anti-Black) White nationalist hate movement grow following Seabright’s reprieve of Ott. Seabright’s ‘arbitrary and capricious’ deprivation of due process rights put us back in the State courts that had raped us, and permitted Sulla and Ott to rape society with drugs and propaganda.
Sulla’s website linked to Ott’s propaganda to fuel violence against us as seen in the Charlottesville, VA riot.
Our seemingly ‘outrageous allegations’ are solidly evidenced by the filings, exhibits, and videotapes we gave Seabright. Seabright’s actions of striking and concealing our evidence, serious warnings we provided in good faith, contributed to the damages increasing across the U.S. today. By delaying the case against Ott and Sulla from 2015 to the time of this writing, Seabright aided-and-abetted racial intolerance and political extremism across our nation. By striking evidence and administratively staying due process on these matters of White Supremacy and anti-Semitism, Seabright acted willfully-blind in favor of White nationalism and Ott’s agents exposed exclusively by us.
Seabright’s actions gave worse than an ‘appearance of impropriety.’ His actions jeopardized law enforcement, social order, and U.S. National Security.
We had informed Seabright in our filings that our $8M defaulted judgment debtor, Ott, was directed by the late Ted Gunderson, previously the FBI’s Division 5 Chief in Los Angeles. Gunderson and Ott were assigned to ‘neutralize’ Black targets, including the Black Panthers. Gunderson eventually gained the arrest of Bobby Seal. Meanwhile, Ott output racist propaganda to generate White Hate groups to harass Blacks and Jews. Under Gunderson’s administration, Ott became America’s leading pro-KKK propagandist. The Neo-Nazis and anti-Semites enraged by Ott’s online publications spread ‘holocaust denialism.’ Their ‘minions’ included ‘COINTELPRO’ agents assigned to ‘take out Horowitz,’ break up his family, and destroy his businesses. Horowitz and Kane v. Sulla and Ott, et. al., included substantial evidence linking Ott & Sulla to all of these hate crimes.
Seabright’s stay devastated Horowitz financially and emotionally. It effectively enabled Sulla (who Seabright knew was untrustworthy) to steal the doctor’s property, and tie the doctor up in the Third Circuit Court from 2015-2019. There went the major part of Horowitz’s hopes to regain his career in public health, consumer advocacy, and vaccine injury prevention.
Seabright’s ‘Administrative stay,’ in effect, delayed and deprived us of our timely trial. The result was catastrophic. Horowitz lost everything. Eventually he was driven to file for bankruptcy. That resulted in his railroading by Tamm, Hu and Faris. The Seabright and Faris federal courts in Honolulu, and the Ibarra, Strance, and Fujino Third Circuit Court(s) on the Big Island, each turned willfully-blind eyes to Sulla’s shenanigans. And to this day, the Judicial Racket has continued to prosecute and persecute Horowitz, as evidenced by the May 2, 2019, Memorandum Opinion, aiding-abetting-and-concealing the DMT trafficking kingpin, Sulla.
The Death and Drug Damage Toll in Seabright’s Wake
The fact that Seabright gave leave for Sulla to continue operating above the law, undaunted by us or criminal prosecutors, damaged masses of people besides us.
One set of damaged citizens was identified by retired police detective, James Benish. Because of Benish’s service to society, Seabright came under investigation by the Ninth Circuit for “judicial misconduct” (in No. 17-90074). That claim stemmed from alleged obstruction of a grand jury investigation filed by Benish. Chief Justice Thomas of the Ninth Circuit dismissed the complaint filed by Benish, who served tirelessly on behalf of society and many victims identified in his Seabright-stonewalled complaint. Benish’s grand jury complaint sought justice for many neglected crimes committed in Hawaii, including murder(s). Judge Thomas skirted the issue of Seabright’s obstruction by ruling the matter rests with the Justice Department. This federal buck-passing and stonewalling compounded the same pattern demonstrated by State officials, including agents subordinate to Attorney General Douglas Chin, including lawyers, prosecutors, and public notaries (court officers). Benish’s Affidavit filed with Seabright on 12-10-15 named the officials complicit in money laundering through the Hawaii Community Foundation, among several implicated non-profits and banking institutions now coming under increased mainstream scrutiny.
Most relevant nationally, and most disturbing, Judge Seabright’s obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence that Horowitz and Benish filed (independently) elucidated the Arizona Massacre. The substantial evidence irrefutably linked Sulla’s enterprise to Ott’s gang of ‘anti-government’ propagandists and violence provocateurs. They dominated the social and independent media during Robert Mueller’s investigation of the murder of Arizona Judge John Roll, and simultaneous shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
In good faith, Horowitz alerted Seabright that the shootings targeted these honorable officials for bravely opposing illegal immigration and cyber-banking. The illegal immigrants and narco-empire prospered using check-manufacturing loop-holes for drug-money-laundering. Seabright responded by striking Horowitz’s filings. He ruled the records “delusional.” He then stayed our $8 million default judgment against Ott, and enabled Sulla to steal our home and adjoining properties.[8] These facts give an impression of treason.
Judge Seabright’s actions were arguably treasonous, because they enabled billions of dollars of drug cartel profits to be subsequently laundered through complicit banks.
Seabright had no reasonable justification for evidence tampering and harboring a most heinous crime gang and drug cartel profiting from Judge Roll’s assassination. All of this was tied to the legislation opposing money laundering filed by Rep. Giffords in H.R. 5689 (along with Public Law 112-93). Judge Roll and Rep. Giffords worked together. Their heroic actions intended to stop the drug cartel’s illegal immigration and cyber-money-laundering schemes.
Seabright’s actions precluded justice being served in all these ways.
Another disgusting Sulla-related injustice enabled by Seabright’s Stay and the Hawaii Judicial Racket damaged a San Francisco couple who purchased a property in Maui. Written by Quentin Wells—a retired CIA Russian intelligence officer serving his ‘public duty,’ the family’s saga exposed the ‘Cardoza crime cell’ operating on Maui. Wells’s report was published on JudicialCorruptionNews.com. It alerts Hawaii-bound property investors to beware of the endemic land thievery ongoing in ‘paradise.’ Wells’s in-depth review of that case vets organized crime involving some of the most esteemed Bar members in Hawaii.
Other Damaged Citizens’ Stories Reveal a ‘Pattern-and-Practice’ of Hawaii Public Corruption
As you read the article by Perez (reprinted below), notice there is no mention whatsoever to what is most obvious. The aforementioned Sulla-corrupted courts. Any substantive due process in the criminal indictments mentioned herein have to go through the corrupted courts. All cases must filter through the stymied and biased prosecutors acting under the influence of power-politics and Deep State organized crime endemic to Hawaii. Convictions of suspects is controlled from top down through State and Federal judges and leading prosecutors.
Hawaii AG Douglas Chin and Hilo Prosecutor, Mitch Roth, both aided-and-abetted Sulla’s drug enterprise and property conversion schemes by willful blindness. They permitted a massive amount of drugs to be shipped to the mainland U.S. through Honolulu and Hilo.
Related news was breaking at the time of this writing from the Big Island—home to Sulla and at least two cocaine dealers engaged in thievary. The article by Tiffany DeMasters, in the Hawaii Tribune Herald, stated that County Prosecutor Mitch Roth appears to be involved in a missing cocaine supply of evidence stolen by police. Roth forwarded that case, unlike our multiple cases involving Sulla, to Attorney General Douglas Chin’s Office in Honolulu. But Chin recused himself, assigning the case to the Honolulu Prosecutor’s Office now under investigation by the FBI for extensive crime.
Roth did as much harm to us as Sulla by stonewalling several criminal investigations and deserved grand jury indictments of Sulla. Then Roth’s subordinate(s) falsely claimed the statute of limitations had run when it hadn’t. Sulla was still in possession of our stolen property mooting the statute of limitations preclusion. In essence, Roth and Chin permitted Sulla’s escape from justice on a couple of occasions.
DeMasters’s report cited “a conflict of interest” between Chin’s office and Roth’s office. Apparently, neither Roth or Chin desired to get involved in any missing cocaine. That cut too close to home. Especially since Sulla committed an $11 million property heist involving a convicted Russian cocaine trafficker. Sulla’s land thievery was aided by at least one Hawaii County Official in Mayor Billy Kenoi’s corrupt administration. The Russian cocaine smuggler is now in jail, but Sulla walks free after profitably converting 11 acres of the Russian’s land that the County had designated for low cost housing. The deal was part of the Waikaloa Highlands Development project featuring the property bought by the Russian mobster from reportedly the Japanese mob. That story was best told in two parts by Patricia Tummons for the activist journal Environment Hawaii.
When you read below in Perez’s article that Lyons Engineering owners were convicted of bribing government officials for lucrative contracts, one of them involved the Waikaloa Highlands Road project involving Sulla and the Russian, and another Lyons contract was exercised by Billy Kenoi’s administration.
It may be recalled that Kenoi was indicted and suspiciously exonerated for embezzling more than $100K from Big Island taxpayers. Chin, who blocked President Trumps border security measure in favor of his single plaintiff–the Muslim Brotherhood–excused Billy Kenoi’s escape from justice most transparently.
As reported by Hawaii News Now, AG Chin said he and his prosecutors “respect the [Kenoi exoneration] verdict and thank the jurors for their service.” He justified the injustice by saying, “The crime of theft requires proof a person intended to permanently deprive his victim of what he stole.” Chin added, “The prosecution argued that not paying back funds to the County of Hawaii until after the press caught him was proof of Mayor Kenoi’s intent.”
But Chin’s statement was fraudulent due to serious omissions. Kenoi’s prosecutors brought plenty of evidence concealed by news reports, proving Kenoi’s thievery. The ‘fix’ was in to exonerate Kenoi. This allegation is backed by a statement made by Hawaii’s Campaign Finance Committee Vice Chair, Kenneth G. Goodenow. Goodenow and his father were found on the wrong side of justice in Wells’s article.
Obviously, Chin and Roth doing their jobs to effectively prosecute the aforementioned criminals would have damaged drug trafficking and money laundering across Hawaii and the mainland. Their jurisdictions oversee the most active drug trafficking areas in Honolulu and Hilo, their harbors and airport.
“Follow the Money”
The second matter of suspicious reporting is found here, in the article below. You will notice reporter Perez neglects to address the obvious (second) question we raised earlier. Perez disclosured that the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (“ILWU”) Local 142 has been implicated in a growing number of corruption scandals. This Union administers the booty incoming and outgoing through every port and airport in Hawaii, and is especially active in Honolulu and Hilo. Curiously, the organization is “a privately held company in Wailuku, HI,” as is Hawaii’s most politically active Carpenters Union Local 745. According to their online listings, both major unions have secreted their annual revenue statements. But this glaring fact goes unnoticed by prosecutors and the press.
Notice Perez levies only very superficial charges against those indicted or suspected throughout his Star Advertiser article. Contrast Perez’s conservative coverage with the multi-billion dollar Rail Project corruption schemes that disappearing hundreds of millions of dollars at minimum. How did that money disappear?
Not through Kealoha’s ‘mailbox,’ we assure you. Notice Perez’s statement, “Among the allegations investigators are pursuing in the ILWU case is that new stevedores [i.e., dock workers unloading and on-loading cargo] in some instances had to pay up to $60,000 in cash to work at the docks.” Read between that line.
Ask yourself, “Who paid those bills?” Certainly-not the poor dock-workers. Where would they come up with that much money to buy a blue collar job?
White collar criminals obviously paid the fees and told workers to keep their mouths shut.
It is only reasonable to conclude that those paymasters are agents in the same narco-enterprise that put Seabright, Faris, Hu, Tamm and Recktenwald in power, and pays them to keep their mouths shut too, and rule as they are told.
And who might that be officiating that deepest level of the Deep State? Daahhhh. Read history! Reflect on the fact that the ‘Boston Brahman’ merchant mariners have been controlling the seas for centuries. Recall their most lucrative trade is drug-running, not “missionary work.” Recall the great ‘Opium Wars’ between China and England. Consider the fact that King Kalakaua engaged this action in competition with the Boston Brahman at the time he was drugged to death. Recall, at that time, the King was under the care of the U.S. Pacific Fleet Surgeon General, Dr. George W. Woods.
So read Perez’s well-written article with a ‘grain of salt.’ Use the aforementioned intelligence to discern what the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, the feds, and state officials are actually concealing. This is not news, nor thorough ‘law enforcement.’ This is superficial diversionary propaganda that transparent evasive action to silence and conceal the most substantive crimes, crime gangs, and drug kingpins delivering narcotics and human slaves (from Micronesia and elsewhere) through the refueling ports and trafficking centers of Honolulu and Hilo.
_________________
15 May2019
By Rob Perez – Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Originally re-published in Marianas Variety, Micronesia’s Leading Newspaper
THESE are extraordinary times.
The number and breadth of current federal investigations into alleged corruption at Hawaii’s public institutions is unmatched in the state’s history, according to about a dozen former investigators, prosecutors, judges and others who have spent decades working in, documenting or observing the law enforcement arena in the islands.
“I’ve never seen it like this,” said Hawaii Pacific University assistant professor Randal Lee, who worked 25 years in the prosecutor’s office focusing on public corruption cases and a decade as a state judge. “It is unprecedented.”
“It’s shocking,” agreed Doug Chin, a former city prosecutor, state attorney general and lt. governor. “I think it’s a big wake-up call.”
No one contacted by Honolulu Star-Advertiser could recall another time in which so many people with public or quasi-public institutions — from the police department and prosecutor’s office to labor organizations and the corporation counsel office — were under investigation by federal authorities for alleged wrongdoing while on the job.
They also couldn’t recall a time in which so many people at the top of the food chain were targets simultaneously of federal probes.
The former police chief. The city’s top prosecutor. Its top civil attorney.
All three have been ensnared in a multiyear federal investigation that is one of the largest public corruption cases in the state’s history.
The first of two trials scheduled in that case is set to start this month. Retired Police Chief Louis Kealoha; his wife, Katherine Kealoha, a former deputy prosecutor; and three former members of the Honolulu Police Department’s elite Criminal Intelligence Unit are facing conspiracy and obstruction charges. They have pleaded not guilty.
As part of the case, a former police officer pleaded guilty in 2016 to conspiracy and a current officer pleaded in January to disclosing confidential information to Katherine Kealoha. A Hawaii island firefighter last year pleaded guilty to conspiring with Katherine Kealoha to lie about their sexual affair. He agreed to cooperate with investigators.
Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro and Corporation Counsel Donna Leong, who both received Justice Department letters saying they were targets of the corruption investigation, have not been charged. They are on leave pending the outcome of the investigation.
“Just the Kealoha stuff alone is unprecedented,” said Ken Kobayashi, a retired Star-Advertiser reporter who covered Hawaii’s courts for more than 30 years.
Also facing federal scrutiny: Oahu’s under-construction rail line, at $9.2 billion the largest public works project in the state’s history.
The FBI and the local U.S. Attorney’s office are investigating, and grand jury subpoenas for tens of thousands of documents have been issued to the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation. The focus of the probe has not been disclosed publicly.
Federal authorities also are pursuing a bribery case linked to government agencies in Hawaii and Micronesia that already has resulted in guilty pleas from the president of a local engineering firm and a Micronesian official.
Frank James Lyon of Honolulu-based Lyon Associates, from around 2011 to 2016, paid about $240,000 in bribes to obtain a $2.5 million contract with a Hawaii government agency that has yet to be identified, according to court records. The company did business with multiple state and city agencies. The probe is ongoing.
In addition, federal authorities are investigating at least two Hawaii trade unions and the state Department of Public Safety.
And these are only the cases that have been made public through court documents and media reports.
With more investigations ongoing, new cases and suspects are expected to be revealed in the months ahead, according to attorneys for witnesses or potential suspects.
The FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office here would not comment on pending cases, provide local statistics on corruption cases or address the widespread perception that the current scope of investigations is unprecedented. Both offices have policies of not confirming or denying the existence of specific investigations.
Sean Kaul, the FBI’s special agent in charge, and U.S. Attorney Kenji Price did provide the Star-Advertiser with general statements.
“If a federal law has been violated, the FBI will pursue an investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice, no matter who they are, what their position or who they know,” Kaul said. “If citizens believe that a local government is turning a blind eye, they can and should always report corruption allegations to the FBI.”
Kaul noted, however, that the vast majority of public officials “are honest in their work and committed to serving their fellow citizens.”
Price said: “Public officials have a duty to serve with the utmost integrity and professionalism. The Department of Justice has and will continue to combat instances of public corruption to help sustain what should be a fundamental public trust in these institutions.”
Willingness to report
Several attorneys, former prosecutors and others attributed the proliferation of federal cases to multiple factors, including that people are increasingly intolerant of unethical officials and are more inclined to report such behavior. And, they added, federal authorities in Hawaii seem to have a free hand to go after cases.
Lee, who served as a deputy prosecutor before becoming a judge in 2005, said public corruption always has been a problem here, but employees historically have reported lower-level managers or staff, not those at the top.
“In the past, you never got to that level,” he said. “People were kind of loyal to their job, to their supervisor and to their own self-interests.”
But a generational shift in attitudes has occurred, Lee added. “The culture has changed. People are demanding more transparency. And the laws protect you from retaliation and discrimination.”
A greater willingness to report corruption has been a national trend, and Hawaii is no exception, according to Jason White, the local spokesman for the FBI.
“We’re seeing that here,” he said. “A lot more people are coming forward.”
Nationally and locally, the FBI has made combating corruption its top priority.
Eric Seitz, a criminal defense lawyer, said the proliferation of federal investigations in Hawaii underscores the unwillingness or inability of some local agencies to monitor themselves — even when legitimate concerns are raised.
“We have been up to now incapable of policing ourselves,” Seitz said.
‘It just keeps unraveling’
Others also cite the greater expertise, resources and independence of the federal government to conduct such investigations. Given the close-knit relationships among state and city agencies, federal investigators bring a greater measure of objectivity and can draw on a larger pool of resources, they add.
“I don’t necessarily see it as the feds being superior,” said Chin, the former prosecutor and attorney general.
The Kealoha case is being handled by federal prosecutors from San Diego.
The complicated nature of white-collar crimes often means that investigations can take several years. They frequently branch out in multiple directions as more evidence is uncovered.
“These things are organic,” said Steve Alm, a former deputy prosecutor, U.S. attorney and state judge. “One thing often leads to another.”
The Kealoha case started as an investigation of a reported mailbox theft. The Kealohas and several police officers were accused of framing Katherine Kealoha’s uncle for the alleged crime. At the time, Kealoha and her relative were engaged in a family dispute over money.
The federal probe has since mushroomed, snaring more suspects and generating additional allegations, including drug dealing and bank fraud.
“It’s like peeling an onion,” said Ken Lawson, co-director of the Hawaii Innocence Project at the University of Hawaii’s William S. Richardson School of Law. “It just keeps unraveling.”
The complex nature of corruption cases also means experts sometimes have to be brought to Hawaii to help, and the federal government typically has more resources to do that and more experienced prosecutors to handle the time-consuming, resource-intensive investigations.
When Alm and his team at the U.S. Attorney’s office pursued the prosecution of former labor leader Gary Rodrigues, a mainland expert on labor racketeering came to Hawaii for two weeks each month for three years to assist with the case, according to Alm.
Rodrigues was convicted of conspiracy, embezzling union money, money laundering and health care fraud in 2002.
In pursuing allegations involving multiple players, it is not uncommon for authorities to go after lower-level suspects or those alleged to have committed lesser offenses, looking to use leverage from those prosecutions to strengthen cases against additional or higher-ranking targets.
Unions under scrutiny
Some attorneys cite the ongoing, multiyear federal investigation of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142.
A plea deal and an indictment earlier this year involving two former officials of that union are an indication that authorities are continuing a broader probe, according to attorneys familiar with the cases.
Nate Lum, former director of the union’s longshore division, reached a deal with federal prosecutors in March, pleading guilty to aggravated identity theft and one count of failure to file his federal income tax return. In exchange, the government dropped six other charges, including theft of public money, the most serious one. A conviction on the latter charge would have meant a maximum prison term of 10 years.
Lum, who now faces up to two years in prison for the theft charge and an additional year for failing to file his tax return, admitted that between August 2013 and January 2016, he deposited into his bank account about $33,400 of Social Security checks intended for his father, who had died before that period, according to the plea agreement.
Less than a month after that deal was struck, Charles Kimo Brown, the former secretary-treasurer of the longshore division, was indicted for allegedly embezzling about $1,500 from the union. He pleaded not guilty to two counts each of embezzling union funds and falsifying financial records.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” said an attorney who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the cases.
Among the allegations investigators are pursuing in the ILWU case is that new stevedores in some instances had to pay up to $60,000 in cash to work at the docks, the attorney said.
The feds also are investigating the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, though no one has been charged in that case. They are examining spending and other matters related to the electrical union.
Seitz, the defense attorney, has four potential cases linked to investigations and said lately he has been in contact with federal authorities at least weekly. “That has never happened before in my life.”
Chin, the former prosecutor, said he sympathizes with all the dedicated, ethical employees at the various government agencies under investigation. They have to deal with the extra work and public criticism that such scrutiny brings to their workplace, he added, while trying to do jobs that already are tough enough.
“I always feel bad when they get drawn into what’s happening above them,” Chin said. “These (cases) take up a lot of bandwidth.”
But the message being underscored by all the corruption investigations is unmistakable, according to Chin and others: If you abuse the public’s trust, the consequences can be severe.
A history of corruption
Here are some high-profile public corruption cases federal authorities prosecuted in Hawaii in recent decades:
Gary Rodrigues
The former state director of the United Public Workers union was convicted in 2002 of conspiracy, embezzling union money, money laundering and health care fraud. He served more than four years in prison.
Andy Mirikitani
The city councilman was sentenced to 4-1/2 years in prison in 2001 for theft, bribery, extortion, wire fraud and witness tampering. He offered bonuses to two aides and received kickbacks from them.
Daniel Kihano
The former state House speaker was convicted in 1997 of money laundering, obstruction of justice and filing a false income tax return after he diverted $27,000 from his campaign fund for personal use. He was released from prison in 1999 because of poor health and died the following year.
Milton Holt
The former state senator in 1999 pleaded guilty to mail fraud as part of a plea agreement after he was accused of using campaign funds for personal use. He served about six months in a mainland prison.
Nathan Suzuki
The former state representative was sentenced in 2005 to three years in prison for conspiring with a Honolulu businessman to defraud the IRS by setting up offshore corporations and bank accounts to avoid tax liability.
Multiple agencies
More than 35 people were indicted in the mid-2000s as part of a massive wiretap operation sparked by the discovery that an FBI clerk was using her access to confidential information to tip off drug dealers. The suspects included the clerk, five police officers, a Honolulu liquor inspector and the Aloha Stadium security chief. Three of the officers were convicted of trying to protect an illegal gambling operation, the clerk was convicted of tapping into a federal database without authorization and the inspector and security chief pleaded guilty to charges related to extorting owners of two bars.
Honolulu Liquor Commission: Eight inspectors were indicted in 2002 for accepting bribes from bar owners in exchange for not enforcing liquor laws. All eight were convicted.
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