2012-12-12 Board of Ethics minutes

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electronic _________. I questioned the Corporation Counsel on this because this could not be, because therefore the County of Hawai‘i, the mayor and Nancy Crawford and our treasurer, would have in fact illegally sold $10 million worth of bonds in municipal assets, having filed federal IRS forms and state forms, and that would be a major violation of the Security Exchange Commission rules and bank fraud, along with racketeering. Lincoln Ashida again confirmed that it was in fact Bill 311, and he actually sent me the deposit slip that the mayor had bought the $10 million bonds from the Bank of Hawai‘i—or loaned them—on March the 2nd. On March the 2nd, $10 million was transferred to First Hawaiian Bank to purchase a time deposit with a maturity date of September the 2nd and transferred back to Bank of Hawai‘i for payment of the bonds. The item before the council here is what value did the people of Hawai‘i get for the $10 million that was the sole use of the Bank of Hawai‘i? In clarification, many people think that it was me involved in a lot of these FBI operations. I contacted Peter Ho, CEO of Bank of Hawai‘i, and I contacted George Horner, CEO, First Hawaiian Bank, in June, July of last year, notifying them of the information that I had received from the Corporation Counsel in a direct email from Lincoln Ashida, confirming the fact that they had purchased fraudulent bonds. From there apparently the Securities and Exchange Commission got involved and the public corruption section of the FBI headquarters got involved. That headquarters was under the direction of a special agent, Vida G. Bottom, and as you’ll all remember, in May of this year FBI director Robert Mueller assigned special agent Vida G. Bottom to head the Honolulu Division of the FBI, as their expertise is public corruption, civil rights, international corruption, bank fraud, and money laundering. The item before this Board is did the mayor violate the ethical code of the County by authorizing or giving propriety use of County assets. The criminal aspects of this are not of the purview of this Board. I’m bringing it before the Board so formal testimony and formal hearings under Hawai‘i Revised Statutes and Rules of Evidence may be engaged, where sworn testimony may be obtained, and evidence so that if any criminal activity does come forth, it can be referred to the County Council for their action and to federal and state agents. Thank you very much. Mr. Balsis called up Tim Rees, who had signed up to testify on agenda items 5a and 5b, the draft orders dismissing Petition Nos. 2012-03 and 2012-04. MR. REES: Good morning, Mr. Chairman, and Ethics Board committee members. Sir, if I could I would also—I forgot to write down number 6 on the executive session. I just had a few comments on that one actually, complimenting the Board for the way that was agendized. To begin with, 5a, this is “Review draft order dismissing petition submitted”—excuse me, sir. Can I hold the clock for a second here? Is there a problem with this microphone boom or can I actually bend it a little bit down? SECRETARY: Not too much, though. MR. REES: Thank you very much. I noticed it was going in and out. Okay, back to this petition, 2012-03. Basically I don’t think this should be on your agenda today. I don’t think this commission should be dismissing the petition submitted by Cheryl King. I read through her petition, and I understand that this is kind of an unusual type of situation. I guess I’ll preface my comments by stating when great authority is given to a body, great