Hawaiʻi Housing Scandal: Federal court schedules concerning the criminal conspiracy to defraud the Hawaiʻi County Office of Housing and Community Development have been set, cancelled, and set again.
On November 2, U.S. Magistrate Judge Rom Trader approved a request to push back a hearing on the petitions of the county and a developer, Honuaʻula, to claim property that was at the heart of the fraudulent schemes. According to a document signed by the U.S. attorney, Claire Connors, and attorneys for the county and Honuaʻula, LLC, “the United States and the petitioners are attempting to reach a resolution as to the issues raised in the petitions and believe that an extension of the briefing deadlines would further judicial efficiency and avoid the unnecessary expenditures of funds and resources by the parties and the Court.”
Now the briefing deadlines are extended to February 6, with reply briefs, if any, due a week later. No hearing has yet been scheduled.
Trial for the three defendants who have not entered a plea is also likely to be pushed back to late August. Salina Kanai, the attorney for defendant Rajesh Budhabhatti, submitted to the court the request to continue the trial date to August 21, citing her extensive travel schedule in the first three months of the year. In a filing with the court on December 19, Kanai stated that she had consulted with the other defendants – Gary Zamber and Paul Sulla Jr. – and that they have agreed to the continuance.
Finally, Sulla, who had asked the court to allow him to represent himself and to dismiss his attorney, Birney B. Bervar, has changed his mind. On November 15, Bervar informed the court that he was once more representing Sulla.
The date for sentencing Alan Rudo for his part in the fraud remains at May 23, 2023. That may also be postponed, however, since Rudo’s plea agreement is conditioned on his testifying at the trial of the three remaining defendants.
Seabed Mining: In the 1970s, the United States government tested several approaches to the mining of manganese nodules on an underwater plateau off the coast of Georgia, at depths ranging from about 2,600 to 2,700 feet. Last summer, three agencies – the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Ocean Exploration branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – returned to the site. The purpose was to understand long-term environmental impacts of the technologies used half a century ago and what those mean for similar activities that are being proposed today.
The data recently collected confirm that “evidence of bottom disturbance from 1970 was both widespread and definable across the study area,” NOAA stated in a recent press release.
Correction/Clarification: Our August 2021 article, “Of Birds and Bees: Some Highlights of the Hawai‘i Conservation Conference,” included incorrect pronouns for Kaleiheana-a-Pōhaku Stormcrow. It also did not make clear that they did the translation work, with limited assistance from others.
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