Kealohas’ Hawaii Kai House Gets $1.3 Million Cash Offer
With a buyer in hand, the lender wants a federal judge to approve the sale.
The foreclosed home of former Honolulu police chief Louis Kealoha and his ex-prosecutor wife Katherine has found a cash buyer for $1.3 million.
The couple’s mortgage lender is now asking the U.S. District Court in Hawaii to schedule a hearing to swiftly approve the home sale before the start of the Kealohas’ criminal trial in mid-March. The prospective buyer is Michael Regan McKenna, according to a purchase contract filed in federal court Friday.
The Kealoha’s lender foreclosed on the upscale, four-bedroom Hawaii Kai property early this year after filing a lawsuit that claims the couple defaulted on a $1 million mortgage.
The lawsuit was filed after a federal grand jury indicted the Kealohas, accusing them of framing Katherine Kealoha’s uncle in an attempt to discredit him in a family, financial dispute.
A judge allowed the lender to put the property on the market last year. The home has marble floors, a heated swimming pool and mountain views, according to real estate listings.
The Kealohas and three Honolulu police officers are scheduled to go to trial next month on charges that they carried out an elaborate scheme to frame Katherine’s uncle, Gerard Puana, for the federal crime of stealing the Kealohas’ mailbox in order to gain leverage in a high-dollar civil dispute between Katherine Kealoha and Gerard Puana. Two other Honolulu police officers have already pleaded guilty and are cooperating with federal investigators.
The Kealohas also face a second trial slated for June involving bank fraud and financial malfeasance relating to money that was allegedly stolen from Gerard Puana and his mother as well as two children Katherine Kealoha had financial responsibility for.
This week Katherine and her brother, Big Island Dr. Rudolph Puana, were indicted by the feds on new charges of selling powerful opioid painkillers illegally prescribed by Puana, covering it up from police and thwarting the prosecution of the case.
The new indictment came on the same day that Hawaii Attorney General Clare Connors filed a petition with the state Supreme Court asking that city prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro be suspended until the ongoing federal corruption probe has been resolved. Kaneshiro has received a target letter in the investigation but has refused to step aside or even acknowledge that he is a target.
