71
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM
Hawaii County Mayor Billy Kenoi purchased 46 acres in 2004 for $215,000.
HILO >> Records show Hawaii County’s embattled mayor sold four parcels of land in 2012 and 2014 for a total of $390,000 but did not list the transactions on his financial disclosure forms.
Mayor Billy Kenoi, who is set to go to trial in a theft case next month, purchased 46 acres in 2004 for $215,000. County and state records show Kenoi subdivided the property into six lots in 2009.
Kenoi sold a 5-acre lot for $100,000 in 2012 and another 5-acre parcel for $150,000 in June 2014. A month later, a Honolulu couple purchased two lots totaling 18 acres from Kenoi and his wife for $140,000, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported Thursday.
The sales, which weren’t listed on Kenoi’s financial disclosure forms, occurred during the same time prosecutors say Kenoi misused his county-issued credit card.
Kenoi has been charged with theft, tampering with public records and making a false statement under oath in connection with the alleged misuse of his card from 2011 to 2015.
Kenoi has previously apologized for using the card inappropriately and reimbursed the county for $22,292 in charges between January 2009 and March 2015. He later paid back an additional $9,500.
A judge denied a request from Kenoi’s attorney last week to have the case dismissed, allowing the trial to begin Oct. 10. A pretrial hearing will be held Sept. 30 in Hilo Circuit Court.
Kenoi didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.
If he had income from those land sales and did not report them on both Federal and State Income Tax returns, he is in a heap of problems. Like prison time! The Feds may ignore it, but the State had better pursue it, if the news article is factual.
Not sure what the problem is. So he had some capital gains off some land. 100% over 10 years is not out of the ordinary for Hawaii. May have been offset by swamp land in Florida.
agree
Why should we be surprised?
Kenoi’s tragic fall from grace is not pretty, and one of the threads ruining through it is his apparent drinking problem. This was on full display this week at the Hawaii Congress of Planning Officials for state and county officials to discuss housing, streets and planning law. It was held at a luxury resort on Kauai and sponsored by corporations who do business in the state, including Kaiser Permanente, D.R. Horton Hawaii, Alexander & Baldwin, Kamehameha Schools and R.M Towill Corp.
Why are these public officials, who are supposed to be acting in the best interests of their constituents, instead allowing themselves to be wined and dined at a luxury resoirt frat party by controversial developers like DR.Horton?
This is truly disgusting. No wonder these greedy developers are able to buy prone Ag land on the cheap then get county and state approval of rezoning and development plans, then pave the fields over, then build overpriced high density residential cracker-boxes, and then Ka-ching… make it rain $$$$$$!
Bringing this conference to light may be the one good thing to come out the Kenoi spectacle. Thanks Billy.
See the video for yourself at:
http://www.civilbeat.org/2016/09/profanity-laced-video-shows-mayor-partying-hard-at-govt-event/
Hope the taxpayers didn’t pay for this gathering.
Sadly, maybe it would be better if the taxpayers had paid. That way the taxpayers would get all the goodwill now headed in other directions.
don’t worry–in the end,we will be the one’s paying.
Thanks for the link. Good vid.
Why is this a big deal unless the income was not reported in the appropriate year of the transaction? This article does little to explain why this is news. People by and sell land all the time so why does this have to be disclosed unless it may involve future zoning changes, decisions, etc. that benefit the land owner.
Eastside – It’s because as an elected official, he is by law supposed to list this income in the financial disclosure forms he is required to file and sign under oath. He lied by not disclosing it yet swearing his information was the truth. I wonder why he would want to keep his real estate investments secret. Inside dealings? Payoffs disguised as sub-market pricing when he acquired them? He chose to be a politician and he chose to lie on his financial disclosures. Don’t what to disclose, then don’t run for office.
The video is disgusting. How this man be so arrogant and survive in the political arena. I had some reservations about all the negative noise about Billy but now now………….
PS – I have that same aloha shirt. Now I’ll always think twice about wearing it.
tie dye it.
Perhaps Billy may want to ask Obama for a ‘PARDON’?
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS should be in Billy’s agenda.
Billy, Billy, Billy,….you are on a slippery slope……be careful my friend…