MAUI Gives MILLIONS to CONVICTED FELON Real Estate Developer

Developer says it will cost $750,000 PER UNIT for "affordable housing"!?

A note before I dive into recent headlines:

This situation on Maui, and in Lahaina in particular, is truly heartbreaking, and it's really impossible for me to put myself in the shoes of those who had this horrendous, awful crime inflicted upon them. Individuals, just going about their daily lives, have had their property, livelihoods, and families brutally taken from them. The trauma that will linger in Lahaina is unimaginable, and it's not limited to Maui; land grabs and population “control” through nefarious means is a heartbreaking reality worldwide.

Many of you have asked me to continue covering Maui, given that other channels seem to have moved on. I genuinely empathize with those who are suffering and where my concern lies is in the government's approach to helping these individuals. Even though some of these “emergency measures” could be justified as a stop gap solution, what I see is a potential gateway to widespread dependence on government support, paving the way for initiatives like universal basic income and government-owned housing — basically a fast-track to 15-minute cities and the New World Disorder dream/nightmare where you will “own nothing and be happy.”

This tragedy in Lahaina could have been prevented for numerous reasons, adding another layer of heartbreak to the situation. There are countless unanswered questions surrounding this, compounded by instances of government corruption. I may not have all the answers, but I certainly have numerous questions.

Click below and join me on this deep dive:

I’ve been following the Honolulu Civil Beat since the Lahaina fires and this latest story caught my eye:

West Maui Housing Developer Is Being Sued By Downwind Neighbors

Here’s the background:

A group of Maui residents who live near the Pulelehua affordable housing project in West Maui is suing the Texas developer for allegedly failing to control fugitive dust at the construction site that the neighbors say is making their lives miserable and threatening their health.

Pulelehua is a 304-acre parcel between the Kapalua Airport and Honoapiilani Highway owned by Texas-based real estate developer Paul Sau-Ki Cheng.

Cheng is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, along with his real estate development company Maui Oceanview LP and the construction company preparing the site, Alpha Inc., also known as Alpha Excavation.

But after reading this article, I also found out that the real estate developer, who has already received millions from Maui, is a convicted felon! Yes, literally did hard time behind bars for fraud.

Here’s another article by the Civil Beat that goes into details about Cheng’s shady past (edited for brevity):

In the 1990s, Cheng spent years behind bars after a conviction on multiple counts of bank and wire fraud, false entries and transporting illegally obtained money across state lines. He became a figure in the savings and loan crisis that shook the country’s economy in the 1980s, appearing in national news articles.

Yet Cheng repeatedly claims he was exonerated of his crimes — an assertion not supported by what’s available of the public record.

But a review of court records turns up nothing to indicate that Cheng was exonerated or had his sentence reversed. What it does show is a man who went to great lengths to clear his name, hiring legendary attorneys F. Lee Bailey and Abbe Lowell– whose clients ranged from O.J. Simpson to the Boston Strangler to Hunter Biden — to defend him.

Now, let's get to the heart of the issue:

Cheng has asked Maui County for a $50 million subsidy to develop affordable housing at the site. That’s in addition to an $18 million county subsidy he’s already received for phase one of the project.

Cheng told Civil Beat for an earlier story that the average affordable residential unit on Maui costs well over $750,000 per unit to build. Because of the extraordinary cost, no affordable housing project makes normal economic sense on Maui without public subsidies.

Cheng, who spent several years in federal prison in the 1990s for financial crimes related to the savings and loan crisis, has appeared before the Maui County Council by video in his appeal for the funding.

Why is the county of Maui giving this money to anyone? Let alone a non-Hawaiian who is a convicted felon and who is asking for another $50 million on top of the millions he already received?

Hold up a sec – are we seriously supposed to buy into the fairy tale that he’s just doing this out of the good of his heart? The real estate developer with a history that's, let's say, less than squeaky clean?

And here we have this character, who's got a history of playing financial games, trying to convince us that putting up a single affordable housing unit is somehow worth a jaw-dropping $750,000?!

Okay, if I have any subscribers who are contractors, developers, or construction professionals who have experience in this area (or better yet, experience with construction on Hawaii) please let me know what you think of that…

So now they’re knocking on the county government's door, hat in hand, seeking millions in subsidies to turn their vision into reality and I just can’t quite get over the price tag of construction.

So the potentially inflated construction costs presented by the developer is a major concern. If the actual cost of building affordable housing units is significantly lower, then the rest could just go right into his pocket and or to line the pockets of those getting kickbacks involved in the project?

Autumn Ness, the group’s treasurer who is also executive assistant to Maui County Council Member Gabe Johnson, said Cheng has gone above and beyond what community groups have asked of him.

He has agreed to prioritize longtime Maui residents, kupuna and fire survivors for units, open his books to anyone who wants to see them, cap his profit margin at 10%, reconfigure the project to make it 100% affordable and throw in other perks. —Civil Beat

Sounds great on the surface, but anyone with a healthy dose of skepticism knows that this guy could find loopholes and creative ways to increase profits while appearing to adhere to the initial agreement. What if this is just optics? There’s a possibility he could be using the affordable housing project as a strategic move to gain community approval and garner positive publicity to soften public opinion of him or just as a totally strategic move for some sort of political leverage in the future for whatever future projects he has planned in the pipeline? While the need for affordable housing is undeniable, I’d proceed with caution. Because what’s to stop this guy from adding future phases of development to this land that include market-rate or luxury housing — you know, just like he originally planned. He never said he was abandoning that idea, just shifting gears.

As always, I love getting your comments.