Marc Paskin, a San Diego millionaire now living in Kailua, is doing his best to give away his fortune to needy Hawaii residents while posing as a do-gooder named Uncle Kokua.
If he hadn’t already handed out thousands of dollars, it would sound like a gimmick too good to be true. But you can judge for yourself when KFVE begins airing "Uncle Kokua" starting Tuesday. The reality show will air at 7 p.m. Tuesdays for 12 weeks.
"He is very sincere, an altruistic person," said John Fink, general manager for KFVE. "He truly wants to make a difference."
Paskin will be familiar to fans of ABC’s "Secret Millionaire," which featured him in an episode last year. The show sent him to Detroit for five days with only $40 to spend on groceries. He worked with local charities and met people who were struggling to survive. Then he handed out about $125,000.
A real estate investor, Paskin has a rags-to-riches story. He grew up poor, and after graduating from college, took his life savings — $1,000 — and invested it in a duplex, according to Paskin’s assistant, Jeff Conrad.
Over the course of nearly four decades, Paskin turned his investment into a $100 million empire.
"Because he is getting old, he wants to give most of his money away to people in need," Conrad explained in an email. "He says he wants to die broke."
Paskin approached KFVE in October about his idea for the show, which he is producing for the station, Fink said.
"He had success with ‘Secret Millionaire’ and was thinking of other ways to give back," Fink said. "But he did not like some of the ideas brought to him by network executives, so he said, ‘What if we did it where I go out in Hawaii and find people in need?’ I told him that was a great idea."
After initial on-air solicitations for potential recipients of humanitarian assistance, Paskin received 1,000 emails.
Paskin, who is in his early 60s, has given away thousands of dollars in groceries to homeless residents in Makaha, purchased a motorized scooter for a disabled Pearl City woman, made a year’s mortgage payments for a Waimanalo family that was about to lose their home, and spent $10,000 to install wheelchair ramps in the home of a woman who has been unable to walk since a car accident.
Paskin is shy about using his name and won’t be identified by name on "Uncle Kokua." In fact, he declined to be interviewed for this story if his name was going to be revealed.
"I can respect that," Fink said. "He wants to retain some privacy. When he did ‘Secret Millionaire’ and something like 10 million people watched the episode, it became difficult for him."
(And just how shy can he be when he’s already all over YouTube as a "Secret Millionaire" and "World’s Worst Elvis Impersonator"? Paskin also can often be found singing at neighborhood karaoke bars.)
According to ABC-TV’s website, he is president of Paskin Properties, a division of The Paskin Group, a privately owned real estate investment and management company.
His history of giving dates further back than "Secret Millionaire." Paskin donated more than $1 million to the University of California-San Diego’s Department of Ophthalmology at the Shiley Eye Center.
"Uncle Kokua" airs at 7 p.m. Tuesdays on KFVE.
