One of Mike Miske’s Hawaii Kai homes is being sold, apparently with the approval of federal prosecutors. It’s not the Portlock mansion on the ocean, but a nice house on the marina that was purchased via a foreclosure auction at the end of 2019.

Miske is the former Honolulu business owner who was indicted and arrested in July 2020 along with a number of co-defendants. Prosecutors alleged Miske controlled and directed a major racketeering organization that operated behind the facade of his “legitimate” businesses, that brought in profits from drug trafficking, extortion, armed robbery, money laundering, and other criminal activities protected by Miske’s history of and reputation for violence.

It’s the second of Miske’s many assets to be sold. A year ago, the longline fishing vessel “Rachel,” owned by one of his companies, was quietly sold.

Both the boat and the Hawaii Kai house are on the list of assets the government intends to take if Miske is convicted of being at the center of the alleged racketeering conspiracy.

My story on the sale is posted today over at Civil Beat (“Miske’s Hawaii Kai Home Is For Sale, But He’s Unlikely To Get The Proceeds“).

A reader had tipped me off about the home being for sale on Thursday, and I finally got around to checking it out yesterday morning. I found the real estate listing, talked to the listing realtor, and reviewed the information I have in my files on the property. Bingo, enough for a story, and I managed to get it written just in time for a glass of wine a few mintes after 5 pm.

In the process, I realize that I missed a couple of things that I had intended to include in the story.

First, I should have made clear that this wasn’t Miske’s multimillion dollar home on the cliff overlooking Maunalua Bay. It was one of his other properties, likely used as a stash house and as a temporary place to stay now and then as he kept moving around because of concerns about security and safety.

Second, I explained Miske had used a trusted associate, Kaulana Freitas, to bid on his behalf in the foreclosure auction, so that Miske’s identity as the true bidder wasn’t disclosed until the sale was being confirmed.

But I failed to connect the dots by adding that Freitas is a co-defendant in the federal criminal case, charged with being a member of Miske’s racketeering conspiracy, drug trafficking, and two counts related to participating in an attack on a nightclub by releasing a chemical used when tenting homes for termites.

Freitas is also “family” to Miske. Kaulana Freitas’ mother is a first cousin of Mike Miske’s. Their mothers were sisters.

Freitas was recently released on bond from the Federal Detention Center, and will be under house arrests in the custody of his father until trial, with GPS monitoring and other safeguards.

In any case, head over to Civil Beat and to read my story about the sale.