Bankruptcy trustee seeks Sports Shinko asset details

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

A bankruptcy trustee in Japan who last month opened an investigation into suspected fraudulent asset transfers in this country by subsidiaries of former Hawai'i hotel and golf course owner Sports Shinko Co. Ltd. is seeking to expand his investigation in Hawai'i.

Deputy Trustee Keijiro Kimura petitioned the Hawai'i District of U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Wednesday to open a case to pursue assets of Sports Shinko (USA) Co. Ltd.'s former president, Toshio Kinoshita.

Kimura said in the filing that Kinoshita, who filed personal bankruptcy in Tokyo in May after resigning from Sports Shinko, may have secreted assets in Hawai'i and fraudulently transferred property.

The trustee said he needs the power to subpoena evidence from third parties in Hawai'i and on the Mainland to help maximize recovery of assets for creditors.

"I believe most of the information, witnesses, and documents in the U.S. regarding the Debtor and his assets are located in Hawai'i," Kimura stated in the filing.

A similar request to use U.S. bankruptcy law to investigate asset transfers was made in the personal bankruptcy case of Kinoshita's wife, Junko.

Local subsidiaries of Sports Shinko sold three golf courses and one hotel in Hawai'i for an estimated $18 million just days before a government debt-disposal agency in Japan forced the company into bankruptcy on Jan. 28. A second hotel was sold a couple of months later for an estimated $3.5 million.

The five assets were bought by KG Holdings LLC, a company headed by developer and University of Hawai'i regent Bert Kobayashi.

A spokeswoman for KG Holdings said yesterday that the company does not believe its purchases are a subject of the investigation.

A Sports Shinko hotel bought by local developer Peter Savio almost a year before the bankruptcy filing is not involved in the dispute, according to Savio.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.