Trust scandal haunts Goldman Sullied Bishop Estate owns 10% of bank
USA Today; Arlington; May 3, 1999
Tom Lowry
Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate was set up 115 years ago to educate Hawaiian children as stipulated in the will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the last direct descendant of the king who united the islands. With assets of about $10 billion, it is one of the richest trusts in the USA and the largest private landowner in Hawaii.
Also last week, state Attorney General Margery Bronster, who is appointed, was ousted from her job by the state Senate. Bronster and her supporters say the move was in retaliation for taking on the politically well-connected trustees. But the trustees' clout, which reached the highest levels of government and Wall Street, is waning. Gov. Ben Cayetano has vowed to continue the investigation with the prosecutors who have been working under Bronster. In the past six months:
* Two of the estate's five trustees were indicted on theft charges for allegedly accepting kickbacks in trust real estate deals. The trustees, former state legislators, arranged to have their condominiums sold at inflated prices in exchange for allowing a developer to do lucrative real estate business with the estate, prosecutors say.