Semisub One, the vessel belonging to Curtiss Jackson, a tour boat company co-founder charged with federal securities fraud and released on pretrial bond in October, was gone from its slip in Kewalo Harbor on Thursday.
Jackson was scheduled
to attend a bail review hearing Thursday, but it was
“vacated” the same day and slated to be “reset as appropriate,” court records showed.
The U.S. Marshals Service asked Coast Guard officials whether they knew Semisub One’s whereabouts, Coast Guard public affairs specialist Ryan Fisher said Thursday afternoon. The U.S. Marshals Service did not
respond to requests for comment.
The Justice Department has charged Jackson, 69, and his wife, Jamey Denise Jackson, 59, with federal securities fraud, alleging that the couple misspent some of the $28 million raised from investors to fund operation of Semisub One — a partially submersible vessel designed for commercial sightseeing tours.
Semisub One apparently departed Wednesday afternoon after people were seen stocking the boat, according to neighboring harbor tenants who requested anonymity. “They just filled up gas and rations and then took off,” a harbor tenant said, noting that there was much activity at Semisub One’s slip in the past few days, despite it usually
being quiet.
“They looked pretty frantic,” the harbor tenant said Thursday afternoon.“This morning the Coast Guard was calling on the radio for the Semisub,” the tenant said, adding that someone responded saying they saw the boat before switching to a private channel. The tenant said that he saw
people pumping water from the boat, which had taken on rainwater and was listing to one side.
Two harbor tenants on a neighboring boat, who also requested they not be named, said they saw Semisub One departing Wednesday afternoon. There were three people moving about on the boat, and the captain was out of sight, they said.
Johnny Hernandez, a captain on a nearby boat, says he saw the boat “moving” within the past few days. “Usually it just sits there,” he said.
Federal prosecutors alleged that the Jacksons strung along investors for more than a decade, claiming their half-submarine prototype was “weeks” or “months” from launching. All the while, prosecutors said, they spent investors’ money on a Mercedes-Benz, psychics, cannabis, vacations, luxury residences and personal credit card bills.
The Jacksons “had been personally enriching themselves at the investors’ expense and had no intention or means to repay the large amount of money they had stolen,” the indictment said.
Hawaii District Judge Rom Trader released Jackson on $50,000 bond in October, stipulating that he not leave Oahu, not contact anyone involved in the case, use drugs or leave his house after a curfew. “He does present risks,” Trader said at the time of the pretrial release. “The real question is, Are these conditions adequate to manage that risk?”
The federal government had asked that Jackson be detained before his trial, set for October, citing that he might flee and pose a risk to others, including his wife and investors.
Earlier this week, prosecutors alleged in a document that Jackson had violated his conditions of release by having a “victim-investor” send a $10,000 check to him by way of FedEx on Nov. 10; attempting to contact and get money from other
“victim-investors”; and assaulting his son.
Multiple calls to Jackson went directly to voicemail and were not returned. His lawyer, Harlan Kimura, did not respond to multiple calls. Jamey Jackson’s attorney, Bentley C. Adams III,
declined to comment on the record. Also, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Justice Department, FBI and U.S. Probation Services Office did not
respond to requests for comment.
