Category Archives: Crime

Another Miske defendant will serve nearly 9 years

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Harry “Harry Boy” Kauhi, who pleaded guilty more than three years ago to being part of Mike Miske’s racketeering organization and taking part with several others in the 2016 armed robbery of Nick Carignan, was sentenced on Tuesday to 106 months in federal prison on each count. The sentences will run concurrently, and he will have to serve three years on supervised release after completing the prison sentence.

Judge Derrick Watson made no recommenation as to where Kauhi should serve his sentence.

The sentence represents a 1-level reduction from the applicable federal sentencing guidelines for taking responsibility for his crimes.

Kauhi, who pleaded guilty in January 2022, was the third of Miske’s 12 co-defendants to plead out and cooperate with prosecutors. All the other co-defendants eventually cut pleaded guilty prior to the start of Miske’s trial in January 2024.

Kauhi, 45, started selling drugs while in elementary school in Waimanalo, and ultimately sold over 100 pounds of cocaine, crack, and meth, according to his testimony during Miske’s trial.

He was convicted and served a seven year sentence for firing a handgun at another group during a late-night clash at Sandy Beach in 1999.

In about 2015, he was recruited into the Miske organization by Wayne Miller, who at the time was Miske’s top lieutenant.

Kauhi admitted he took part in several murder-for-hire plots, and had accepted thousands of dollars from Miske via Miller in 2016 to kill a Waimanalo man suspected of providing information about Miske to law enforcement.

During Miske’s trial, Kauhi testified he accepted an $8,000 down payment, but took no further action.

“I kept pushing it off and telling them when I was ready I would do it,” Kauhi said, but said he actually had no intention to carry out the hit.

Kauhi said he later found out that before he was arrested in July 2020, Miske had “put a hit on me on the streets,” apparently fearing Kauhi might cooperate with authorities.

Kauhi, 45, testified he was not associated directly with Miske, but was involved through his longtime friendship with Wayne Miller, and his ties to Jacob “Jake” Smith.

Kauhi was one of several Miske associates who landed jobs in the movie industry through Miske’s contacts. Kauhi testified he got a job in the Teamster’s movie unit in 2015 through Miske’s friend, Sudee Dahl.

“Mike Butenbah told me the reason why Mike Miske got me into the movies is to keep us close and use us when he needed us,” Kauhi testified.

Only three of Miske’s co-defendants are still awaiting sentencing: Lance Bermudez, Norman Akau, and Delia Fabro Miske.

See:
Kauhi’s Guilty Plea Strengthens The Conspiracy Case Against Mike Miske, Civil Beat, January 6, 2022

Movie to feature the war for control of Hawaii organized crime in the ’60s and ’70s

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A movie proposal now being pitched in Hollywood would tell the story of one-time Hawaii crime boss Wilford “Nappy” Pulawa, whose organization, known as The Company, battled its way the top of organized crime in Hawaii a half-century ago.

According to the online news site, Deadline.com, the Martin Scorsese-directed film would star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Pulawa and also star Leonardo DiCaprio and Emily Blunt.

To be written by Nick Bilton, the film focuses on a turbulent time on the island paradise when an aspiring mob boss battled rival crime factions to wrest control of the underworld of the Hawaiian islands. It was a bloody battle, the kind of terrain Scorsese covered in both Goodfellas and The Departed. In 1960s and 70s Hawaii, this formidable and charismatic mob boss rises to build the islands’ most powerful criminal empire, waging a brutal war against mainland corporations and rival syndicates while fighting to preserve his ancestral land. It’s based on the untold true story of a man who fought to preserve his homeland through a ruthless quest for absolute power — igniting the last great American mob saga, where the war for cultural survival takes place in the unlikeliest of places: paradise.

For those too young to remember Nappy Pulawa, here’s a brief excerpt from an entry about Pulawa and The Company in Wikipedia.

Under Pulawa’s leadership, The Company extended a firm hold over the criminal rackets on the island, resorting to extreme violence when necessary. The organization became involved primarily in illegal gambling, prostitution in the islands’ resort hotels, racketeering of local labor unions, the extortion of local legal and illegal businesses, and in the wide-scale illegal trade in Chinese white heroin. Under Pulawa, the organization extorted a tribute from anyone wanting to do business in Hawaii, such as mainland mafia members, bookmakers, and gambling operators. The Company was able to exert some of its criminal control into Hawaiian communities on the mainland, mainly in Nevada and California. The syndicate made connections with figures in the American Mafia, but in some cases also had a rivalry with some of them. Rumor has it that when once two Chicago mobsters active in Las Vegas were sent to Hawaii to teach a local Hawaiian gang leader a lesson for muscling in on illegal gambling rackets in Nevada, The Company killed the two mob thugs and returned their chopped-up bodies to the mainland in the back of a trunk with a note attached: “Delicious, send more.”

Like the legendary gangster Al Capone, Pulawa was convicted of tax evasion in 1975 and sentenced to 24 years, although he was released in less than 10. Since then, he has been retired and living on Maui.

At one time, the project was conceived as a made for television series, but is now being pursued as a movie. Assistants working on development of the proposed film have reportedly been in touch with Pulawa, as well as consulting other people knowledgeable about the crime scene in the islands.

More Miske associates sentenced

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Three more Miske associates who previously made deals and pleaded guilty have appeared before Chief Judge Derrick Watson over the past two weeks for sentencing.

The first was Tricia Castro, 53, Miske’s longtime accountant. She pleaded guilty in June 2021 to a single count of conspiracy to defraud the United States “for the purpose of impeding, impairing, obstructing and defeating the lawful governmental functions of the IRS in the ascertainment, computation, assessment, and collection of revenue, namely, income and employment taxes….”

The charge carries a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine, plus supervised release of up to three years.

According to her plea agreement, Castro was an accounting manager at AATS, LLC from 2009 to 2016, then was a partner at Egami & Ichikawa CPAs, Inc., until 2018.

Castro conspired with Mike Miske, Delia Fabro Miske, and Jason Yokoyama to “conceal funds and income from the IRS” by preparing and filing false tax returns, according to her plea agreement.

In a heavily redacted sentencing statement filed in court several weeks ago, Castro’s California-based attorney, Edward M. Robinson said Castro does not deny that her illegal activities “had far-reaching consequences,” he objected to the conclusion of the government’s presentence report that Castro was “motivated by apparent greed…”

Robinson said she had been paid a “salary as a CPA and did not receive any additional compensation or benefit of any kind for her tax preparation work that gave rise to her criminal prosecution.”

According to statements by people who knew her, Castro was “thoroughly devasted and remorseful” following her arrest, and “”[f]illed with frustration, anger, disbelief, and guilt.” This apparently led to mental health issues, which Robinson referenced only obliquely, as well as continuing “vulnerability.”

But Castro “has taken responsibility for her role and actions and is deeply ashamed of them,” according to the Reverend David J. Gierlach. “I believe she has completed that transformation from who she was to who she is today based on my frequent contact with and observations of her.”

Gerlock’s character reference letter was filed under seal, along with letters from eight others. None has been made public, but Robinson quoted Gerlock’s letter while arguing that Castro should be sentenced to a term of probation, with no prison time.

Castro has become “a shining example of post-offense rehabilitation,” Robinson argued.

During a 50-minute hearing, Judge Watson approved a 1-level reduction from federal sentencing guidelines that had been recommended by prosecutors based on her efforts at rehabilitaton. In addition, Watson found Castro to be a “Zero-Point Offender” under a new provision of the sentencing guidelines which allows an additional 2-step reduction.

Watson then sentenced Castro to a 6-months imprisonment followed by 6-months home detention, and three years supervised release. Watson recommended she serve her sentence in one of two federal medical centers. He further recommended she undergo a mental health assessment and any necessary treatment, and also receive Vocational and Educational Training.

Watson also ordered $437,608.80 in restitution, apparently the estimated amount of tax avoided through the preparation and filing of false tax returns. The judge ordered the parties to discuss whether the restitution should be imposed “jointly and severally” with Mike (or his estate) and Jason Yokoyama, Miske’s former employee, business partner, and trustee.

Castro’s attorney requested the court to “apportion this restitution liability among Ms. Castro, Mr. Miske, and Mr. Yokoyama in a manner that reflects the level of contribution to the IRS’s loss as well as the economic circumstances of each defendant.”

Next up: A man who considered Mike Miske to be his best friend.

Court ruling makes Miske indictments and convictions disappear

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Chief Judge Derick K. Watson, who has presided over the racketeering case of the late owner of Kamaaina Termite and Pest Control, Michael J. Miske, Jr., since its inception, issued a 6-page legal order on Wednesday that, as expected, dismissed the Miske indictments pursuant to the doctrine of abatement ab initio. Miske’s attorneys and federal prosecutors agreed on this point, and the ruling was a foregone conclusion.

The parties appear to disagree, however, over whether the Jury Verdicts should be vacated. The same Ninth Circuit precedent set forth above is clear: all proceedings are abated from the inception of Miske’s prosecution. In perhaps more common parlance, everything that occurred in this prosecution, as it relates to or affects Miske, is negated. See Black’s Law Dictionary 3 (12th ed. 2024) (defining “abatement ab initio” as the “negation of a criminal trial and verdict after a convicted defendant has died before exhausting all legal appeals. The case reverts to the beginning point as if the trial and conviction had never occurred.”). This means that points of interest, such as the Order permitting defense counsel to withdraw, the Order denying a change of venue, and the Order addressing over fifty (50) motions in limine never occurred, at least as they relate to Miske. More pertinent to the parties’ specific dispute, it means that the Jury Verdicts never occurred too. It is, thus, entirely unnecessary for the Court to formally vacate or not vacate the Jury Verdicts, as the parties appear to fight over, because, under the circumstances here, the natural consequence of Miske’s death is that all proceedings in this prosecution from its inception are negated.

Watson’s ruling, citing 9th Circuit precedent, notes that this “prevents, among other things, recovery against the estate of a fine imposed as part of the conviction and sentence and use of an abated conviction against the estate in related civil litigation.” Emphasis added.

This clearly precludes the government from using the jury verdicts to support its pending civil forfeiture lawsuit that was filed on January 22.

However, due to the pending lawsuit, Watson declined to release any of the disputed Miske property to his heirs or beneficiaries. The outcome of the civil case will determine whether the long list of assets will eventually be seized by the government or distribted to Miske’s beneficiaries.

Watson agreed with the government that Miske’s defense attorneys do not have standing to challenge the government’s forfeiture lawsuit.

“Rather, it is Defendant’s estate and/or heirs that must do so, if at all,” Watson noted.

It is currently unclear just who has such standing to represent Miske’s estate or heirs. In August 2020, a month after Miske’s indictment and arrest, he signed a power of attorney giving his mother, Maydeen Stancil, “full power and authority to do and perform all and every act, deed, matter and thing whatsoever in and about my estate, property and affairs….” A section of the trust agreement was filed in court during the criminal proceedings.

One phrase in a portion of the trust agreement caught my eye.

It states, in part: “This assignment includes all of my real, personal, tangible, and intangible property, located in the United States….”

Is this simply legal boilerplate language, or does it imply there may be additional property outside of the United States?

In any case, the power of attorney is no longer valid after Miske’s death.

Prior to his death, Miske remained the trustee of his own living trusts. The trust agreement named three individuals who would take over as successor trustee of his trust, along with “separate trusts” established to benefit an individual whose name is redacted, in the event of Miske’s death. The named trustees, in order, are Jason Yokoyama, Miske’s longtime employee, business partner, and co-defendant; Alen Kaneshiro, an attorney whose clients included Miske and a number of his associates; and John Stancil, Miske’s half-brother and co-defendant.

Nothing in the public record has yet indicated whether one of these individuals is now serving as trustee, with standing to intervene in the government’s civil foreclosure lawsuit on behalf of Miske’s estate. The properties themselves are named as defendants in this lawsuit, rather than Miske’s trust, or any of Miske’s possible heirs or beneficiaries. The limited court record to date does not include notice of the lawsuit to any other party.