The Star-Advertiser reported today on Big Island resident Eric Lighter’s conviction on federal wire fraud and related charges. It’s a “premium” story, meaning you can’t read it without a subscription. You would think that means the story has some special value. Problem #1: He was convicted on December 20, almost two weeks ago, making it [...]
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It’s amazing what computers can do as an aid to long-term memory. I managed to find several of my old folders in a backup of a long-gone computer. It’s got files dating back more than 20 years relating to Eric Lighter, convicted this week in San Jose on 17 counts stemming from a complex tax [...]
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It took a very long time to bring Eric Aaron Lighter to justice, but in the end it took a federal jury in Northern California just one day of deliberating to find him guilty on all 17 counts stemming from his participation in a complex series of schemes to create fraudulent trusts to “help” clients [...]
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I was disappointed to learn that humorist Charley Memminger, my former Star-Bulletin colleague and creator of “Charley’s World” and other gems, is now a pitchman for private prison operator, Corrections Corporation of America. That’s the company that makes millions annually housing Hawaii inmates in its private mainland facilities. It really isn’t as funny as other [...]
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Here’s one we haven’t worried about before–fraudulent takeovers of condominium boards. In Las Vegas, prosecutors alleged a complex fraud targeted condominiums thought to be considering construction defect lawsuits, then used shill buyers and paid confederates to take control of the condominium association boards in order to steer the legal work and repair contracts to companies [...]
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Here’s a story from the Wall Street Journal that got far less traction than I think it deserved (“A Discipline Problem/Paterno Fought Penn State Official Over Punishment of Players“). In an Aug. 12, 2005, email to Pennsylvania State University President Graham Spanier and others, Vicky Triponey, the university’s standards and conduct officer, complained that Mr. [...]
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After yesterday’s hot exchange of comments over Honolulu’s proposed rail system, I think I’ll try to cool things down by taking another look at the use of pepper spray against peaceful protesters. A comment in response to Monday’s post pointed to a decade-old decision by the 9th Circuit Court holding the use of pepper spray [...]
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We left the Washington Hilton hotel at 12:30 a.m. Friday, Hawaii time, and arrived at Honolulu airport at about 5 p.m., finally getting home to Kaaawa about 7 p.m., making for a very long day with a lot of things happening. I noted several media-related items. First, there was the sale of the San Diego [...]
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