I just want to take a minute to correct a statement in a comment on my story that appeared in Civil Beat on Wednesday about an agreement between the government and the attorney representing the Michael J. Miske, Jr. Living Trust.

The comment said, in part:

Looks like the grand daughter’s mother will be sitting pretty after she’s released from prison and resumes caring for the girl. Yes crime does pay.

Actually, that won’t happen. The granddaughter’s mother, Delia-Anne Fabro-Miske, is the widow of Mike Miske’s son, Caleb, but Miske rewrote the terms of his trust to make Fabro-Miske ineligible to benefit from it, directly or indirectly.

Here’s the situation.

Miske set up a living trust back in 2008 which would take title to his business and personal assets if he were to become incapacitated or died. Until one of things were to happen, the trust remained just a formal plan for what would happen at some point in the future.

The terms of the trust were amended several times. The last changes were made in September 2024, less than three months before Miske died.

If the government’s lawsuit seeking the forfeiture of Miske’s millions in cash and property is settled out of court, any property released by the government would go to the Miske trust, and would be required to be used and distributed according to the trust’s most recently updated terms.

The final changes Miske made to his trust confirmed that his granddaughter, Fabro-Miske’s daughter, was to be the sole beneficiary of the trust. Miske ordered that Fabro-Miske be entirely removed from his trust, along with Miske’s longtime live-in partner, Andrea Kaneakua. Miske explicitly instructed that neither woman was to be allowed to benefit from the trust in any way.

“There shall be no distribution or benefit from my trust to Delia Anne Miske or Andy Miske (Andrea Kaneakua) by way of guardianship of [my granddaughter]…I request Delia Anne Miske and Andrea Kaneakua are removed from every section from my trust.”

The three trustees of the trust–two of Miske’s longtime friends, Russel Mascoto and Jon Dahl, along with Honolulu attorney Alen Kaneshiro, who handled numerous cases for Miske and his associates–are legally bound by these terms and do not have the power to override them.