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Roth hosts this Price of Paradise broadcast alone, fielding callers on the same day the Honolulu Advertiser reports that the Bishop Estate's McKenzie methane gas deal cost the estate $100 million. He walks through the deal's particulars: trustees committed over $85 million overnight on February 22–23, 1989, relying on materials from a promoter who was secretly earning a 3 percent commission; at best, $20 million appeared recoverable. Roth also returns to the honorary Waialae Country Club memberships held by trustees — worth roughly $40,000 apiece — and the 75-year lease the club subsequently obtained at terms leaseholders called fair. He argues that with no strategic investment plan, trustees cannot be held accountable. A law school colleague joins by phone to explain why Supreme Court justices' role in picking trustees raises judicial-ethics concerns: they must avoid the appearance of impropriety and cannot accept fiduciary duties to outside entities. Callers range widely — debating blood quantum and who qualifies as Hawaiian, asking whether the estate's land use on the Big Island serves beneficiaries, and citing a study in which 30 to 50 percent of Kamehameha students identified primarily as non-Hawaiian when surveyed anonymously.
Transcript
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