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Casino official
outlines Kahapea
gambling debt

Ewa Villages suspect paid
some $600,000 while
making $39,000

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

Fired city housing official Michael Kahapea's line of credit increased at the Stardust Hotel and Casino from $4,000 in 1994 to $30,000 in 1996, an official with the gambling house said. Chris Crain, Stardust collections manager, also testified in Circuit Court today that Kahapea paid some $600,000 on his loans and had total winnings of $270,000 during that period.

Kahapea was making $39,000 annually from his city job as relocations branch officer at the time. Prosecutors allege that Kahapea had debts at other casinos as well.

Kahapea is standing trial for allegedly masterminding a scheme to steal more than $5.6 million from a fund designed to pay the relocation costs of commercial entities tied to the city's Ewa Villages relocations project. Prosecutors say Kahapea conjured up false bidding statements and had the sometimes fake moving companies of family and friends bill the city for moves that were either bogus or done at inflated rates.

Prosecutors say a major motivation for Kahapea's alleged actions was to pay off his debts from gambling and investments.

Crain said Kahapea's gambling activities at the Las Vegas casino were confined primarily to slot machines. He reported that while Kahapea played mostly 25-cent and dollar slots in 1993, he was playing mostly $100-a-pull slots by 1997, the year he was arrested in the Ewa Villages scandal.