HILO — Mayor Billy Kenoi, who’s being prosecuted for theft and other charges, sold most of the land he owned in Glenwood in 2012 and 2014 and didn’t disclose the transactions, as required by law. ADVERTISING HILO — Mayor Billy
HILO — Mayor Billy Kenoi, who’s being prosecuted for theft and other charges, sold most of the land he owned in Glenwood in 2012 and 2014 and didn’t disclose the transactions, as required by law.
That’s according to records from the county Real Property Tax Office and the state Bureau of Conveyances.
The land sales occurred during a period that, prosecutors have hypothesized, financial problems prompted Kenoi to make personal charges on his county-issued credit card, also known as a purchasing card or pCard.
Kenoi faces two felony theft charges, two misdemeanor theft charges, three counts of falsifying a government record and a single count of making a false statement under oath. The charges stem from Kenoi’s misuse of the pCard.
The theft and document falsifying charges cover the time frame of 2011 to 2014, while the alleged false statement occurred Feb. 6, 2015.
On Feb. 9, 2012, Kenoi sold 5.081 acres to Ronald Eichhorn of Vienna, Austria, for $100,000. The sale was recorded Feb. 17, 2012. County tax records indicate the land has a 2016 market value of $87,700.
On June 2, 2014, Kenoi and his wife, Takako, sold 5.083 acres to Yim Hung Lau of Hong Kong for $150,000. The sale was recorded June 4, 2014. That parcel was sold again Oct. 22, 2015, for $153,165 to a Singapore company, Grande Management PTE Ltd. According to county tax records, that land also has a 2016 market value of $87,700.
And on July 7, 2014, the Kenois sold two parcels of land, 12.49 acres and 5.364 acres, to a Honolulu couple, Jeffrey and Aubrey Hawk. Total price of the sale of the 17.854 acres was $140,000, and the sale was recorded the following day. The larger parcel has a 2016 market value of $106,300, while the market value of the smaller piece is $88,400, county tax records state.
The sales weren’t listed on Kenoi’s financial disclosure forms for the years 2012 and 2014 as required in Section 2-91.1(c) of the Hawaii County Code. On Item 7 on the form, which instructs officials to list real property with a fair-market value of $5,000 or more sold during the disclosure period, the mayor checked “none” both years, and signed and dated the documents below the statement: “I hereby certify that the above is a true, correct, and complete statement.”
The parcels, all zoned agricultural, were part of a 45.9-acre land purchase Kenoi made in March 2004 for $215,000, between mile markers 17 and 18 on the eastern side of Volcano Highway (Highway 11). Kenoi subdivided property into six lots in 2009 and was granted a zoning variance to use water catchments for his “Ka I‘o Farm Lots” because of “special and unusual circumstances.” The nearest county water system at the time was more than a mile from the property.
The Kenois still own two of the lots.
The larger parcel, 12.539 acres, has the three-bedroom home the Kenois built in 2005. The market and taxable value of the land is listed at $106,300, while the structure’s assessed value is $391,500 with a homeowner exemption of $120,000, according to county tax records.
County tax records place the value of the smaller parcel, 5.36 acres, at $88,400.
Kenoi told the Tribune-Herald in May 2009 the purpose of subdividing the lots wasn’t “development” but to provide for his family’s future and education. He reportedly said one lot would go to each of his children, who then were pre-teens.
“I plan to make sure my children have a lot when they grow up. That was the purpose of moving out there,” Kenoi told a reporter at the time. He said he hoped the remaining land would provide their college fund.
Kenoi’s trial is scheduled to start Oct. 10 in Hilo before Honolulu Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario, who’s hearing the case because all Big Island judges recused themselves.
During a pretrial hearing Friday, Deputy Attorney General Kevin Takata said he planned to call as an expert witness an FBI forensic accountant to examine Kenoi’s personal and family finances.
“The lack of available funds to pay for personal purchases was an explanation of why the county pCard was used,” Takata told the judge.
Kenoi told reporters he didn’t have a personal credit card during a press conference in Honolulu he called last year after Big Island newspapers reported Kenoi used his pCard to settle an $892 tab at a Honolulu hostess bar and a $400 tab at another, among numerous personal charges.
The judge granted Takata’s request for an expert witness despite the objection of Kenoi’s attorneys. Court records indicate a subpoena was issued to James J. Cigan, an FBI forensic accountant.
Kenoi spent about $130,000 with the card before it was revoked last year, an amount that included county and non-county expenses.
The county did its own pCard audit in July 2015 and found 145 pCard transactions totaling $23,683 in the Mayor’s Office didn’t follow county policy, had a questionable public purpose or might have violated state law. That included $3,689 in charges deemed personal.
Kenoi reimbursed the county for $22,292 in charges between January 2009 and March 2015. He later paid back approximately $9,500 more after the newspapers published their stories examining his pCard use.
The pretrial hearing will continue Sept. 30 in Hilo Circuit Court.
Kenoi didn’t return phone messages left at his office and on his cellphone by press time.
