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Not a Price of Paradise episode: a talk Randall Roth gave to a Rotary club (name not stated on air) on October 28, 1997, as the second of five co-authors of the Broken Trust essay to address the group. Roth explains that the Bishop Estate is a charitable trust whose beneficiaries legally include the general public, with the Attorney General holding responsibility as parens patriae to hold trustees accountable. He criticizes the three overlapping investigations — a court-appointed master, a court-appointed factfinder, and the Attorney General's office — arguing the master's function should be folded under the AG's authority. Roth details the McKenzie methane gas deal: trustees committed over $85 million in one day with minimal due diligence, their own attorney called it a disaster, and recovery was projected at no more than $20 million. He raises trustees' honorary memberships at Waialae Country Club alongside a 75-year lease the club renegotiated on favorable terms, calling this a textbook conflict of interest. He also argues that the absence of a strategic investment plan shields trustees from accountability. In audience Q&A, a member challenges whether Roth alone wrote the essay; the recording ends as he begins to respond.
Transcript
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