Who is Larry Harmon and where in the world is he?
Those are questions that are going to be asked at a hearing scheduled early next month on a complaint filed by the Hawaii Venture Capital Association, which is asking the state to reject the business name of the “Venture Capital Association of Hawaii.” The latter group was hastily formed during the campaign season to endorse Mufi Hannemann’s run for governor.
The well-established Hawaii Venture Capital Association, which has been around since 1988, objected to the use of such a similar name and filed a complaint with the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.
The whole flap arose after the HVCA endorsed Neil Abercrombie for governor, and shortly afterwards the new group was formed to endorse Hannemann.
Questions were raised at the time about the new group, which had no track record. No one had ever heard of the new Venture Capital Association of Hawaii or Larry Harmon, the person listed as its incorporator on the articles of incorporation submitted to the state.
Harmon did not provide a personal or business address, only the address of Incorp Services, Inc., a Nevada-based firm that specializes in processing paperwork for others.
HVCA immediately sent a “cease and desist” letter to the new VCAH organization demanding that it stop using the name, and issued a press release alleging the new group was linked to the Hannemann campaign.
According to HVCA, the new group used an address of a company linked to a key Hannemann campaign supporter.
In addition, Harmon’s group is represented by attorney Mark Mukai, who happen’s to be on the board of directors of Mufi Hannemann’s Fund for the Pacific Century, which sponsors the Pacific Century Fellows.
Harmon seemed to surface briefly the next day with a response that was emailed to dozens of reporters. The letter was modeled after Neil Abercrombie’s somewhat infamous F-You letter of 30 years ago, and included digital links back to a copy of that letter.
But since then, no further information about the mysterious Larry Harmon has been turned up. In documents filed in the complaint pending before DCCA, attorneys for the Hawaii Venture Capital Association say no one in the organization has heard of or met Mr. Harmon.
A search of public records failed to turn up any record of Harmon owning property in Hawaii, being an officer of any other business or registered organization in Hawaii, or holding any professional or vocational license. Harmon hasn’t been cited for a traffic violation, and doesn’t appear as plaintiff or defendant in any lawsuits.
It’s as if he doesn’t really exist.
Yesterday I noticed this interesting factoid in Wikipedia:
Lawrence Weiss (January 2, 1925 – July 3, 2008), better known by the stage name Larry Harmon and as his alter-ego Bozo the Clown, was a Jewish American entertainer.
Maybe the joke’s on us??
If so, this case will lead to further and perhaps more serious questions for the former mayor and his campaign.
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Concise – with apologies to the addressees – it is to Harmon’s credit that he did not slash the formal salutation and pen in some other term of endearment.
Perhaps Harmon will show up to work with Mufi in his new job as president of the Hawaii Hotel Association. Parenthetically, can you imagine the demand for seats at Tourism Committee hearings in anticipation of the first explosion between Senator Donna Kim and Mufi in his new role as supplicant for the hotel industry? Now that’s entertainment!
Good sleuthing, Ian.
Filing articles of incorporation with a fake name if that is what occurred would appear to violate one or more laws.
I resent my name being dragged into something as smarmy as Hawaii politics. It gives professional buffoonery a bad name.
Okay that’s it, I’m Larry Harmon. I don’t know who that Clown is above me but if it’s buffoonery he wants then it’s buffoonery he’ll get.
This can only be settled on the field of honor. Seltzer bottles at dawn, sir!
This is vintage Mufi Hannemann. Birds of the same feather flock together.
Mufi’s legacy of deceit, manipulation, bullying, and
subversion will continue to surface. Too bad Mayor Carlisle succumbed to allowing Mufi’s hacks and cronies to taint the new Carlisle administration of change.
No proof, no defense, no day in court…just an accusation…then hang em! You would have loved the Spanish Inquisition.
Mynah,
You misunderstand the Spanish Inquisition. The Inquisition, in its “Spanish” form or other variants, actually fetishized “proof,” legal arguments and the “day in court.”
You can find the complete transcript of the trial of Joan of Arc! The Catholic Church was determined to give the accused a fair chance to argue against the charges. After all, they didn’t want to torture or burn at the stake someone who “didn’t deserve” it. So the court records for heresy trials were taken very seriously and preserved.
The irrationality of the process entered in the original assumptions, not in the logic which was then applied to those assumptions and evidence.
The Spanish Inquisition experience shows that a “fair trial” does not guarantee justice. In fact, it shows that strict observation of legal procedures can lead to absurd results if the original assumptions are not themselves reasonable.
It would be unfair to condemn the Catholic Church on this without mentioning that American Protestant Puritans were guilty of similar atrocities, with the Salem Witch trials and the execution of Quakers. After full trials, conducted by sober, perhaps even modest, men of the cloth.
Didn’t mean to cast aspersions at the Holy Mother Church or its judicial process…
But if failure to confess is evidence of guilt you’re sort of screwed.
I’d rather take my chances with Judge Ezra.