Owner of Turtle Bay
arrested in Japan

From staff and wire reports

The president and three other officers of the Japanese company that owns the Turtle Bay Hilton Golf & Tennis Resort were arrested in Osaka, charged with swindling creditors in a real estate deal unrelated to the Oahu property.

Kizo Matsumoto, 62, president of Asahi Jyuken Inc., and the others were arrested yesterday and charged with hiding a profit of 600 million yen (about $4.5 million) when they sold a property in Osaka.

Osaka police said Matsumoto ordered company executives to conceal at least 15 percent of the actual price of any mortgaged real estate that the company sold.

Asahi Jyuken is heavily in debt because of a large number of mortgage loans it took out that subsequently soured.

The company bought the 485-room Turtle Bay Hilton and its 800 acres of land in 1988 for an undisclosed amount that Hawaii real estate sources said was $128 million. That same year, Matsumoto was ordered out of the United States for failing to disclose a prior conviction on his visa application.

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Kyodo News Service contributed to this report.