---

BACK TO TOP
|

HAWAII

Maui Land to pick another CFO

Maui Land & Pineapple Co. has changed its mind about its next chief financial officer.

The company, which in March named Robert Werle to replace the retiring Paul Meyer, has reversed that decision and said yesterday that Werle will remain in a financial consulting position, by mutual decision.

Fred Rickert, the company's vice president of finance for subsidiary Maui Pineapple Co., will take over as acting CFO on July 1. Meyer, who has been with MLP since 1984, will retire the same day.

Rickert, former CFO for the Port of Oakland in California, has been with Maui Pineapple Co. since April.

"We are pleased that Fred has accepted these additional responsibilities and confident that he will perform well in this position," said David Cole, chairman and chief executive of MLP.

Cole said he is conducting a full search for a permanent CFO.

Ko Olina project's 1st phase sold

The developer of Ko Olina Kai Golf Estates and Villas in Leeward Oahu has sales contracts for all 148 homes in the project's first phase.

Centex Destination Properties put the homes up for sale on June 1 and within 10 days had buyers for all 46 single-family golf estates and 102 condominium villas.

"Essentially we were selling new homes as fast as we could write the contracts," said Michael Kosmin, vice president of sales and marketing with Centex's Hawaii division.

The project, which is in the Ko Olina resort, is still under construction. The first homes are targeted for completion in the first quarter of next year.

The development's single-family homes sold at prices ranging from $930,000 to $1.4 million. The condominiums fetched from $450,000 to $700,000.

Centex Destination Properties, a division of Dallas-based Centex Homes, plans to build another 14 single-family and 162 condominium units. Kosmin said those will go on the market beginning in the fall, likely at higher prices due to the strong demand for the first phase.

Marathon expo gets bigger digs

The Honolulu Marathon expo has outgrown its home at the Outrigger Reef on the Beach Hotel and will move to the Hawaii Convention Center this December.

The event, which is expected to draw between 54,000 and 81,000 visitors, will cover at least 80,000-square-feet on the ground floor with a capacity for 300 booths. The expanded Honolulu Marathon expo will approach the size of similar events staged by the Boston, Chicago, New York City and Los Angeles marathons. The Honolulu Marathon was the third largest in the United States last year and the world's sixth largest. There were 22,161 finishers in the 2003 marathon and 4,683 participants in the Race Day Walk.

The expo will take place Dec. 8-11 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The 32nd Honolulu Marathon will start at 5 a.m. on Dec. 12 at the corner of Ala Moana and the Queen Street extension.

Production Hawaii Inc. will stage the Honolulu Marathon expo. For more information on the event, call Mike Rossell at 832-7878.

NATION & WORLD

Ex-CEO faces criminal charges

Network Associates Inc.'s former chief financial officer faces criminal charges of masterminding an accounting scam that conspired with distributors of the computer security company's products to dupe investors.

The 20-count indictment, unsealed yesterday in San Francisco federal court, alleges Prabhat Goyal orchestrated an elaborate scheme to inflate Network Associates' sales and conceal $330 million in losses from 1998 through 2000 while he was the company's CFO.

Spurred by the government's investigation, Network Associates already has restated its results for the three years cited in the indictment.

Iraq contractor deaths may carry huge cost

The mounting deaths and injuries to civilian contractors in Iraq could cost the federal government millions of dollars for hundreds of workers' compensation claims.

Federal law requires all U.S. government contractors and subcontractors to obtain workers' compensation insurance for civilian employees who work overseas. If an injury or death claim is related to a "war-risk hazard," the War Hazards Compensation Act provides for government reimbursement to insurance carriers.

Nearly half the 771 injury claims filed by U.S. contractors so far this year occurred in Iraq -- 345. Of the 66 deaths reported as of last week, all but nine occurred in Iraq, according to the Labor Department, which handles the reporting of claims and reimbursements.

Since January 2003, there have been claims for 476 injuries and 80 deaths in Iraq.

A convoy of contractors was ambushed Tuesday in Baghdad. Two people were killed and three were injured when shots were fired from a highway overpass. Among the most gruesome deaths were four civilian security personnel who were killed March 31 in Fallujah, their bodies mutilated and burned. The remains of two were hung from a bridge.

"The security situation is virtually unprecedented," said Bob Hartwig, chief economist with the Insurance Information Institute.