Hotel must compensate
victims of con artist

A jury rules the Halekulani
should have warned guests about
a fake Saudi prince

Star-Bulletin staff

The owner of the Halekulani Hotel says it is appealing a Honolulu jury's decision that it must pay $88,848 to a California couple who had been tricked into paying the hotel bill of a con artist posing as an Arabian prince.

The jury before Circuit Court Judge Collen K. Hirai last month found that the Halekulani Corp. committed negligent and fraudulent misrepresentation and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in 1994 when it accepted payment from Gilbert and Irene Goetz of almost $21,000 for a bill owed by Anthony Gignac to the hotel.

At a party hosted by the Waikiki hotel, a Halekulani employee introduced the Goetzes to "Khalib Bin Al Haud", who claimed to be a Saudi Arabian prince, according to Steven Otaguro, the plaintiffs' attorney. The "prince" was actually Gignac, who has been convicted for fraud and theft in Florida and California.

Otaguro said the Goetzes agreed to pay the hotel bill of the "prince" until he could get cash from a safety deposit box on the mainland. The "prince" gave the couple jewelry, valued at $9,000, as a measure of good faith.

The plaintiffs claimed that the hotel had done a credit-car check, realized the "prince" was a fraud and contacted police hours before the Goetzes paid Gignac's bill.

The hotel, through its attorney Lloyd Asato, argued that the arrangement between Gignac and the Goetzes was a separate transaction. Asato declined to comment on the case because the verdict is being appealed.

While at the hotel Gignac stayed in $850-a-day suite, and charged food and other items to his account, Otaguro said.

Gilbert Goetz, a retired educator, and Irene Goetz, one of the founders of the Jhirmack hair products business, had stayed at the hotel often over several years.

"We have never understood why the Halekulani, a business which supposedly prides itself in guest service, treated the Goetzes in such a manner," Otaguro said. "The Halekulani could have easily warned them that Gignac was a fraud instead of silently accepting their money."

Otaguro said documents from the Los Angeles Superior Court in 1991 show that Gignac had been arrested and convicted in California for grand theft of personal property and fraud.

Documents from Dade County Florida show that in December 1993 and January 1994 Gignac defrauded others at the Grand Bay Hotel in Florida. He was later convicted and imprisoned for those crimes, Otaguro said.

There is a pending criminal indictment in Hawaii against Gignac based on alleged securities laws violations, theft and money laundering activities. The indictment was filed Dec. 20, 1995 by the city Department of Prosecuting Attorney.

The $88,848 judgment included $50,448 for the plaintiffs' attorney fees to Otaguro and George Brandt.