Billy Kenoi indicted today of theft

[SBH]

There's another 3,847 politicians that should be indicted for far more serious crimes.

[Chunkster]

The part that keeps me wondering is how Kenoi can make about $120,000 per year and not have his own credit or debit card to pay for the personal stuff. How badly do you have to manage your personal finances to be in that situation? How foolish (or arrogant) do you have to be to think that it's OK to violate a policy that you signed off on and that nobody is going to eventually look at? Whether the somewhat vague (IMHO) legal charges stick or not, the lapse in judgement should disqualify Kenoi from higher office.

Some of my friends are already beginning to speculate that this is part of an internal Democratic party scheme to silence a potential challenger to Ige's re-election by an energetic upstart. Given what we know about the Byzantine nature of the local Dems, it might be easy to believe. Personally, I have not seen the level of cleverness or energy from Ige that it would take to do this. It did, however, take almost a year for his minions at the AG office to produce an indictment, so maybe it fits Ige's profile after all. Who knows? Either way, Billy's career needs to be toast.

[leilanidude]

quote:

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Originally posted by SBH

There's another 3,847 politicians that should be indicted for far more serious crimes.

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Curious as to what is more important than theft of taxpayer money? Do you really want politicians to be able to steal with no recourse? This wasn't a "tried it once and got caught" type of thing! It also involves attempts to cover up and lie about the expenses.

[kalakoa]

I'm wondering which laws I should still bother with -- seems like non-violent crimes are now perfectly acceptable, especially if I totally promise to "put it back" after I'm caught.

[Kapoho Joe]

quote:

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Originally posted by Chunkster

The part that keeps me wondering is how Kenoi can make about $120,000 per year and not have his own credit or debit card to pay for the personal stuff. How badly do you have to manage your personal finances to be in that situation?

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This was the first part of the story that really stuck with me. How are you not able to keep your card and the company card separate? I had a company gas card when I was in my 20s and there was zero chance that I was going to mix it up with my personal card!

[Punatic007]

quote:

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Originally posted by dakine

Wow is right.. accordingly our little ol' mayor:

• travel all over the world first class

• including establishments with very expensive prostitutes

• has lived an extravagant lifestyle

• stayed in some fancy places in San Francisco

• has a mob family

• stayed in 5 star hotels, an extreme extravagance

I had no idea Billy, from the sound of it, is an international Jetsetter. That's simply fascinating. As opihikao said Please tell us more. As long as it's fact, and you can back it up I too am all ears.

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Just like the rest of us I have been reading about Billy in the newspapers for years. If something I have written about that intrigues you then as an adult you can google it. It makes sense that you seem to be supporting Mayor Billy in this thread. Birds of a feather.

[Punatic007]

A little something to add about how Korean hostess bars operate:

The john pays for 2 drinks at a time, one for him and one for the girl lavishing attention on him, physical and verbal. Here on the Big Isle with our lousy economy the drinks are around $20 to $30 each. On Oahu they double in price. 3 rounds can easily be $300 for lots of touching under the table. Side deals are usually made for the private rooms in the back and that is in cash, can pCards be used at the ATM? Tabs climb. So if Mayor Billy had 2 companions that would mean 3 rounds would be about $900 on the credit card, unknown amount in cash. How many men like to get enticed for 3 rounds and then have no release? There ya have it. And no these girls are not Geisha's, nowhere close, zero comparison.

[Justin]

Interesting to see that this doesn't seem to have changed the opinion of too many folks - either people weren't a fan and they are joyous/disgusted, or they were a fan and they see this as small potatoes and insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

I am in the middle on this one. Plainly it is wrong, and moreover stupid, to use a company card (government issued or otherwise) to pay for anything personal. It shows lack of solid decision making, which obviously may carry over into more important items, i.e., if you were dumb enough to do this, what else might you be dumb enough to do.

That being said, it does seem overboard, and indicative of the current political culture, to indict a politician on what should - in my mind - be a fine-able offense. This is the equivalent of killing a fly with a tank. Yes, there were personal purchases on a government card, but couldn't that be resolved with a public disparagement, a fine, something else not involving an indictment and a criminal proceeding. How many of us have been stolen from for $5 here, $20 there, and not bothered to go to small claims court.

In the end, because this is a criminal indictment, and because it was impact his law license, he's invariably going to fight - and spend lots of money doing so - to clear his name. The state and county will have to spend money accordingly. In the end, we all lose, and all - apparently - so that somebody could smear him for short-term political gain. It's not as if we didn't already know what he did, and it's not as if the money hasn't been paid back, so what's the actual point of this from the state's standpoint, aside from attention grabbing?

[HiloPuna]

Punatic007
Your explanation of how Korean hostess bars "operate" is ridiculous. First, customers are not "johns". That is a term used to describe the customer of a prostitute. Korean hostess bars are not bordellos. This is not semantics. It is a fact. You are repeating hearsay or some fantasy. I've been in hostess bars, entertaining associates and friends, and I have NEVER been propositioned, fondled below the table, kissed, or even had a whisper in my ear.
Further, your list of the Mayors extravagances alternates between the banal and the absurd. Your retreat to the retort, "....google it..." smacks of having been called out and being unable to perform, or pure laziness.

Lelanidude, you wrote;
"....No, it isn't "petty". There was no way he was going to stop using the card for personal charges and he had no intention of ever paying it back - UNTIL HE GOT CAUGHT! It went on for nearly SIX YEARS! If he had the intention to pay it back, he would have done so much sooner, even if that meant small amounts being paid back over time.
When he finally did pay some of it back, he had someone else front the money to do so. That also shows that he personally, wasn't capable of paying it back...."

It's helpful to have your facts straight before you opine on a subject. A little critical reading of the various accounts is helpful. Over the period of referred P-card use their was an ongoing payment by the Mayor. Here's what I got from news accounts;
"....Kenoi usually reimbursed the county for personal charges within a month or so, but he paid back another $7,500 of the almost $130,000 in charges on his pCard after the story broke in late March...." WHT 7/18/2015
"...Kenoi reimbursed the county for $22,292 in charges between January 2009 and March 2015. He later paid back an additional $7,503....". If I take this in it's plain reading I would say that when the investigation began he had already paid $22,292 in charges that were deemed personal. After the leak of the hostess bar charge on the P-card statement, and the ensuing uproar in the media, he then paid back an additional $7,503 that apparently was originally deemed appropriate by him or his staff. Whoever reviewed the P-card accounts at that point, and given the degree of examination unfolding, it was then decided to resolve any ambiguities and have the Mayor absorb the additional expenses. At that point one would best assume that the accounts were gone through very carefully, no doubt why the AG's indictment seems like thin gruel.

As far as "front the money" ? Really? I'd like to see the reference in a legitimate source to this "fact". Your final assumption regarding the Mayors financial condition is pure conjecture and easily dismissed as such.

[Guest]

Some of us tax-payers may not want to support businesses like club evergreen, my family and I certainly don't. Club evergreen is known to be one of the best hostess bars or clubs(not because of the food) in the entire state of Hawaii, also its the last to close most mornings at 4:00a.m.

http://honoluluweekly.com/cover/2011/03/...ter-worth/

It may continue to be Very hard to make good moral or ethic decisions in hawaii. Especially if our elected leaders continue to look the other way, while spending our money in these kind of sleazy establishments,jmo.