North Shore wedding venue linked to man accused of fraud

Loulu Palm Estate LLC on Oahu’s North Shore is a picturesque setting for weddings but also appears connected to unsightly stock fraud allegations that recently led to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission complaint.

The property was an editor’s pick this year for best Hawaii wedding venues by wedding industry publication The Knot, joining a list of top venues that include the Halekulani Hotel in Waikiki and The Fairmont Orchid resort on Hawaii island.

Loulu Palm’s parent company, Hawaiian Hospitality Group Inc., is financially intertwined with several companies set up by Hale­iwa resident Nicholas Louis Geranio, who was charged in May with defrauding overseas investors of $35 million.

The SEC alleges Geranio deceived investors by coordinating a scheme to sell stock in the firms based on lies about their operations and manipulated prices. Between April 2007 and September 2009, Geranio founded eight small companies and arranged to have sales agents pressure overseas investors to buy shares of the so-called "penny stock" companies, the SEC said. The stock was manipulated to inflate prices and proceeds, the SEC claims.

Hawaiian Hospitality is publicly traded, but it isn’t among the businesses that the SEC alleges were used by Geranio to defraud investors. Geranio is accused of using gains from illegal activities to help establish Hawaiian Hospitality.

Hawaiian Hospitality is engaged in weddings and catering and also aims to launch minisubmarine tours. According to the company’s website, Hawaiian Hospitality is "a huge up-and-comer in the local hospitality industry."

Geranio, who is also known as Nick Louis, helped establish Hawaiian Hospitality, the SEC said in its complaint. Most weddings hosted by Hawaiian Hospitality are held at the Loulu Palm property leased from one of the Geranio companies in the SEC complaint.

Hawaiian Hospitality representatives did not return phone calls seeking comment. Geranio could not be reached. The SEC would not comment on the ties between Hawaiian Hospitality and Geranio beyond what was included in its complaint.

The wedding and catering company was formed in August 2009, and since then has sought publicity by issuing close to 20 news releases touting a wide range of activities, including planned acquisitions, partnerships and anticipated performance.

In each of the past two years, Hawaiian Hospitality reported unaudited net losses of about $263,000 on about $500,000 of revenue primarily from the wedding operations of Loulu Palm and catering affiliate 21st Parallel Catering & Events, according to public annual reports.

The Loulu Palm property includes a five-bedroom house built in 1941 on a 35,240-square-foot parcel between Turtle Bay and Sunset Beach.

The site is touted as being a private beach setting but actually is separated from the public beach by state conservation land.

A Geranio company, BWRE Holdings LLC, contributed $250,000 as a down payment to buy the property for $2.7 million in 2008, the SEC said. According to the purchase agreement, Geranio is also the guarantor for $20,000 monthly installment payments to the seller, and full payment is due July 24.

The SEC seeks to recover alleged ill-gotten proceeds from Geranio companies, including BWRE.

Hawaiian Hospitality is obligated to pay BWRE, which is based in Hawaii, about $20,000 a month for rent, but instead has largely issued stock to BWRE, making BWRE a major shareholder in Hawaiian Hospitality, according to the company’s annual reports.

Hawaiian Hospitality reported owing BWRE $166,720 in unpaid rent and a promisory note of $175,858 at the end of last year.

Another major connection between Geranio and Hawaiian Hospitality involves the company’s plan to offer underwater tours through subsidiary Submersible Technical Services Inc.

Hawaiian Hospitality reported purchasing Submersible Technical Services, a Nevada company, using $5 million from Kaleidoscope Real Estate Inc. The deal included a pair of small submarines — a two-seater and a three-seater that Hawaiian Hospitality said were received but not yet certified for use last year.

Kaleidoscope is a Geranio company sued by the SEC in connection with the alleged stock fraud. Hawaiian Hospitality reported owing Kaleidoscope $525,201 at the end of last year for the sub company purchase. The other roughly $4.5 million Hawaiian Hospitality owed Kaleidoscope was satisfied by giving Kaleidoscope 394 million shares of stock in Hawaiian Hospitality, the company reported.

Shares of Hawaiian Hospitality stock aren’t worth much. The company has issued more than 2 billion shares since its founding, and periodically has condensed those shares to boost the value of each remaining share.

Currently there are about 875,000 shares of Hawaiian Hospitality stock outstanding, with each share worth less than one-tenth of a cent, according to Bloomberg. To put it another way, 1 cent was enough to buy 50 shares of Hawaiian Hospitality stock last week. To buy all outstanding shares in the company would cost $175.

At the end of last year, Hawaiian Hospitality reported having one paid employee, Linda Kress, a former claims coordinator with Hono­lulu insurance firm King and Neel Inc. who was named president and CEO in December 2010.