Aloha! This is David Buck. I'm a real estate broker here in Honolulu, HI. Here I am in front of Moana Pacific, which is a beautiful high rise condominium here in Kakaako. The reason why we're here today is not necessarily to talk too much about real estate. Even though that's what I do for a living, I've sold multiple units in this complex and I'm very familiar with it. I was featured in an HGTV episode with it.
One of David's HGTV Episodes Where Moana Pacific was Featured
Moana Pacific and Ties to NY Governor
The reason we're here today is there was an article in the Star Advertiser this morning and it talked about how the governor of New York, Kathy Hochul and her ex aide has gotten into some trouble in being an agent of the Chinese government. Her name is Linda Sun and her husband is Chris Su. They apparently took millions upon millions of dollars, allegedly $6 million from the Chinese government to basically spy on the governor of New York.
Once again, there's a story behind why we're here at Moana Pacific. In the article, they said of the $6 million they allegedly took from the Chinese government, they funneled it into 2 properties. One of which was in Long Island, NY and they said the other was in Honolulu. So, being a Realtor, it didn't take much digging this morning to figure out what they own.
Chris Hu Ownership at Moana Pacific
There's a gentleman by the name of Chris Hu that bought a unit on the 47th floor of Moana Pacific. Specifically, 4703 in 2021. At that time, he paid $1,880,000 in cash. Now, fast forward to today - I'm not sure if they knew the hunt was on them with the feds for taking money from China. This unit is listed today for $2,249,000 with just 19 days on market. So, I'm not sure if Mr. Hu knew the feds were after him, but it's currently for sale.
Moana Pacific #4703 (MLS # 202418134) Listed for $2,249,000
So, if you want to buy a condo in Kakaako at $2.25 million, you can get one here today. Just keep in mind that Mr. Hu paid nearly $400,000 less just a few years ago. So, we'll see if he's able to make that profit. We'll see if this allegation sticks. New York Governor news witnessed first hand here in Hawaii and here we are at Moana Pacific (East Tower).
Bigger Picture: Feds Cracking Down on Foreign $ Laundering
I'm back at the office and have a little summary to wrap this up. There's a lot of irony here because a week ago I did a YouTube video talking about how Janet Yellen and the Biden Administration wanted to crack down on cash transactions for residential sales where foreign corruption was using it to buy real estate here in the United States.
Even though I'm a broker here in Honolulu, HI and I've been doing this for 24 years now, I'm still a little bit naive. I'm learning something every day because I didn't think there was a lot of corruption going on here. However, here we are a week later and this Star Advertiser article about how the ex-aide of the NY Governor was receiving well over $6 million from the Chinese government. It's hitting close to home because this happened right here in Hawaii.
Back to the video I did last week. There was probably a connection or correlation. They were probably on to this case before that announcement came out. This strikes close to home here in Honolulu, HI. I, myself can sleep good at night. If there's any kind of corruption here, I try to distance myself. I hope you have a great day and contact me if you have any questions about real estate here in Hawaii. Mahalo!