Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement & Political Manipulation at America's Largest Charitable Trust

by Samuel P. King, Randall W. Ro, Randall W. Roth

Book Overview

Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop was the largest landowner and richest woman in the Hawaiian kingdom. Upon her death in 1884, she entrusted her property--known as Bishop Estate--to five trustees in order to create and maintain an institution that would benefit the children of Hawai'i: Kamehameha Schools. A century later, Bishop Estate controlled nearly one out of every nine acres in the state, a concentration of private land ownership rarely seen...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 082483044X
• ISBN13: 9780824830441
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

A Courageous Book

It is difficult to comprehend the courage it took for Randall Roth and Samuel King to publish this book, unless you lived in Hawaii. Hawaii is a small state and Bishop Estate is the big fish in the small pond. The book details how the one whistle blower was fired from Bishop Estate and hounded until he lost his house, was bankrupt and had to move away from Hawaii. In 1990, Bishop Estate was conservatively estimated to have an endowment of $10 billion, invested largely in land in Hawaii. The value of land in Hawaii has increased since 1990. The book provides a blow by blow account of how Bishop Estate was manipulated to become a political plum, with political insiders selected as trustees. Then trustees kept giving themselves pay raises. Compensation was nearly $1 million each annually as well as self-dealing contracts for additional compensation. The book also details non-bid contracts for trustee's family and friends. According to the book, from 1991 to 1996, Bishop Estate trustees admitted they suffered almost $400 million in losses and loss reserves on investments. The book describes how the state judiciary threw out the criminal indictments against the trustees on procedural grounds. Without deciding whether crimes had or had not been committed, the judciary sharply criticized the attorney general's office for being overzealous in efforts to secure indictments. They also declared the entire matter finished and no new indictments could be brought. The Bishop Estate trustees were not required to compensate the trust for mismanagement. The book makes one wonder if the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation could be manipulated in the future by politicians, like Bishop Estate was.

Very highly recommended reading

Written by district court judge Samuel P. King and law teacher Randall W. Roth, Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement & Political Manipulation at America's Largest Charitable Trust is the true story of greed, corruption, and mismanagement that plagued the "nation's wealthiest charity" according to the Wall Street Journal circa 1995 - the Bishop Estate, legacy of Hawaiian Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, who created the trust to maintain the educational institution of Kamehamea Schools and therefore benefit the children of Hawaii. In August 1997, four respected leaders of the native Hawaiian community and a professor of trust law publically accused the Bishop Estate's trustees with gross incompetence and severe trust abuse, to the point of being criminal, in a statement titled "Broken Trust". Now Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement & Political Manipulation gathers never-before-public information concerning the entire sordid matter, especially highlighting how corruption flourished in the legislature, courts, and legal profession, and how the media and the native Hawaiian community neglected to take a stand against it - virtually the opposite; the community would often be coaxed into protesting attempts to reform the trust or limit the power of the trustees. Broken Trust is not only a case study, but also offers larger lessons about the dangers of unchecked power and civil responsibility, and is very highly recommended reading for American and Hawaiian history shelves in public, college, and private libraries alike.

Great Read!

Wow! This book FAR exceeded my expectations. In addition to the mind-boggling stuff previously reported by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and 60 Minutes, "Broken Trust" includes fascinating stories about the early days of the trust, an eye-opening indictment of Hawaii's judiciary (especially the chief justice), and anecdotes that regularly had me laughing, crying, or mad as hell. My only problem with this book was that once I started reading, I couldn't put it down.

Don't Wait for the Movie, Read it Now!

This book should be required reading by all who are interested in modern-day Hawaii beyond the sand and surf. It is an amazing example of how absolute power corrupts absolutely. The greed and abuse by the trustees are so outrageous, it's like reading a fairy tale with the Wicked Witch and wizard named "Oz". The sad part is realizing that these are real people who are still around... Kudos to the authors for bringing light to the darkness, and contributing book proceeds to children's education!

A riveting read about unbridled greed for money and power

As a former 20 year resident of Hawaii and student of Professor Roth, I found this book to be as entertaining as any fictional crime story, but unfortunately more than true to life. It is easy to read yet full of detail and background. We lived in Hawaii during the period of time when the Bishop Estate and its trustees went from merely connected and powerful to arrogant, abusive and above the law. It was amazing to watch the speaker of the house become a trustee and continue to hold his speaker's position and vote on legislation directly affecting the trust. Professor Roth and Judge King provide the historical backgound to help the reader understand the origins of the trust and how the combination of immense wealth, control of large tracts of residential land, a one-party state, and a trustee nominating process linked hand in glove with the courts and the political process lead to such gross mismanagement and personal hubris. What is difficult to convey in just words to those who did not live in Hawaii during these times is just how untouchable the estate and the trustees were until the students and their families began to speak out, and how unprecedented the march on the trustees offices and the publication of the Broken Trust essay in the Star-Bulliten were. The book also provides additional insight into how the very political process that lead to the abuses then fostered the downfall of the trustees, as attacks on the unattackable (the trustees) became a way for an incumbent Democratic governor to distance himself from a party that had become synonymous with the excesses of the trustees. The only short-coming of the book is one that the authors cannot directly control - and that is the fact that many of the documents created during the investigation of the trustees are still blocked from publication. One can only hope that at some point in time the courts will see fit to honor Pauahi's request that there be a full accounting of the activities of the trust and its trustees. I will now probably go back to my bookshelf and pull out George Cooper's and Gaven Daws" "Land and Power in Hawaii" (a much denser read) and re-read chapter 13 -The Maryland Law. Highly recommended.