Mike Miske, owner of Honolulu Termite & Pest Control and several other companies, including Kamaaina Plumbing, knew he was the target of a major federal criminal investigation for nearly four years before he was taken into custody at a Kailua residence during a dramatic pre-dawn raid in mid-July 2020.

But even as the criminal investigation expanded year by year, putting pressure on Miske’s personal and business finances, he was able to get more than $3.7 million in loans from three mortgage lenders. One loan for just over $1 million was made just seven months before his arrest, and 2-1/2 years after the government served notice it was investigating murder-for-hire allegations that carry a possible death sentence.

The standard mortgage loan application form asks whether the borrower is “a party to a lawsuit in which you potentially have any personal financial liability,” but does not appear to seek information about other known situations, including expected criminal charges, that could affect a lender’s credit decision.

Whether those and other debts will ever be repaid appears to be in question. Miske, 46, and ten associates, are facing charges which include murder and kidnapping, drug dealing, extortion, armed robbery, weapons offenses, bank fraud, and racketeering conspiracy.

When Miske was arrested, the government seized his personal and business bank accounts, “all vehicles of any significant value,” and a Boston Whaler valued at more than $400,000, according to a court filing by Miske’s defense attorneys.

On the day of his arrest, the government also filed a legal notice in the Bureau of Conveyances which warns the government will seek forfeiture of three Miske-owned properties, including his mansion on the ocean in Koko Kai, if he is convicted. This notice, known as a “lis pendens,” makes it unlikely any of the properties can be sold until the criminal case is completed.

The boat has since been returned, although not in seaworthy condition. The current status of Miske’s personal and business bank accounts is unknown.

Miske was arrested and the Kamaaina Termite and Pest Control (KTPC) office shuttered on July 16, 2020.

The federal indictment, made public in July, alleges: “KTPC provided some legitimate termite and pest control services, but also served as a headquarters for the planning of criminal activities, the laundering of illicit proceeds, and the fraudulent ’employment’ of individuals whose ‘work’ consisted of engaging in acts of violence or fraud….”

The company’s required pest control operator license has since been forfeited, and Kamaaina Plumbing’s contractor license lapsed at the end of September, effectively putting both companies out of business, according to the state’s Professional and Vocational Licensing Division online database.

Knowledge of the investigation

In a document filed in federal court on August 7, 2020, Miske’s defense lawyers traced how and when Miske became aware of what they refer to as the government’s “protracted and all-encompassing” criminal investigation.

“By October 2016, financial institutions had begun terminating their relationships with Mr. Miske and his companies, refusing, for example, to allow him to continue to deposit KTPC’s revenues from bona fide termite and pest control services,” they wrote.

“Over time, several financial institutions terminated banking relationships with Mr. Miske and KTPC, without explanation,” and “the obvious inference was that the Federal Government’s criminal investigation targeting Mr. Miske was ongoing.”

As a result, in July 2017, Miske retained attorney Lynn Panagakos to represent him.

The following month, on August 10, the FBI executed a search warrant and boarded the Boston Whaler “Painkiller” at its mooring in Kewalo Basin Harbor. The search warrant alleged the boat had been used in a the murder-for-hire plot directed by Miske that prosecutors say resulted in the death of Jonathan Fraser.

“Thus, by August 10, 2017, Mr. Miske knew that: (1) he was the target of an FBI investigation into an alleged murder-for-hire which could be charged against him as a capital offense….and (2) the FBI had made an ex parte submission to a United States Magistrate Judge which resulted in a finding of probable cause against Miske,” his attorneys wrote.

At that time, Miske added attorney Thomas Otake “to lead his Federal criminal defense team.”

Then, on May 29, 2018, the FBI offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for Fraser’s disappearance.

“Based on the above-described search warrant, Mr. Miske was well aware that he was a person of interest whom the FBI viewed as under its jurisdiction,” his attorney’s wrote.

Finally, on January 4, 2019, “the firm which employed Mr. Miske’s long-time CPA terminated its relationship with Mr. Miske, KTPC, and all other entities associated with Mr. Miske,” according to the document filed by Miske’s legal team.

Thus, by that time at the beginning of 2019, “Mr. Miske was aware that the scope of the Government’s investigation into him also included alleged tax fraud offenses.”

The loans

In April 2010, Miske purchased an oceanfront property in Hawaii Kai for $2.35 million, financed in part by a $1,175,000 mortgage from Pacific Rim Bank. This loan was apparently made several years before the federal investigation was initiated.

On March 22, 2018, Bank of Hawaii originated another mortgage loan of $1,999,999 secured by Miske’s interest in the property. It isn’t clear from available paperwork whether this was a refinancing or a new loan for additional improvements being made on the property.

In June 2019, Miske added a $500,000 credit line from Hawaii Central Federal Credit Union, again secured by the same property, real estate records show.

City records show the property has a current total assessed value for real property tax purposes of $5,305,300.

In another transaction, Kaulana Freitas, a co-defendant in the Miske criminal case now pending in federal court, submitted the winning bid of $1.4 million in a public auction held in mid-2018 for a house on Kumukahi Place in Hawaii Kai. The foreclosure sale came only after years of litigation, and it took more than another year to obtain final court approval of the Freitas bid. After the auction, Freitas disclosed that he had bid on behalf of his designee, Mike Miske, who then took his place as purchaser of the property.

Miske financed the sale, in part, with a $1,050,000 mortgage loan from Home Point Financial Corporation that provided 75% of the purchase price. The property is current assessed for tax purposes at $1,344,400, slightly less than the purchase price.

Real estate records indicate one more loan made to Miske during the period 2016-2020, during which he was aware of the ongoing federal criminal investigation. In February 2017, Miske obtained a $212,000 line of credit from Bank of Hawaii secured by his interest in a property on Paokano Loop in Enchanted Lake.

One count in the 22-count federal criminal indictment alleges Miske prepared “materially false documents” that were used as part of a loan application submitted to Bank of Hawaii between April 21 and July 3, 2017. However, there is no indication whether these fraudulent documents were related to either of the Bank of Hawaii loans cited above, and a search of public records failed to locate another BOH loan within that period.