Uniqlo Founder Accuses Maui Water Provider Of ‘Textbook Financial Fraud’
A federal lawsuit says Maui Land & Pineapple fraudulently quadrupled water rates to cover repairs to water systems it is responsible for maintaining.
The owner of two Maui golf courses is accusing one of the state’s largest land developers of fraudulently quadrupling water rates to shirk responsibility for water system repairs, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.
TY Management, which owns two golf courses at Kapalua Resort, says Maui Land & Pineapple, which supplies irrigation water to the courses, doctored budget documents to disguise major repairs and capital improvements as routine maintenance costs, the complaint says.
The land company can pass on the cost of routine maintenance to its customers through water rate hikes but not major improvement projects or repairs.
Maui Land & Pineapple used to be one of the state’s largest pineapple suppliers, but it got out of the business in 2010 and now owns more than 22,000 acres in West Maui. It is responsible for maintaining the Honokōhau Stream and Ditch System, which supplies irrigation water to customers in the area, including residents, farmers, hotels and resorts.
TY Management, which is owned by Tadashi Yanai, a Japanese billionaire and founder of the Uniqlo clothing company, has been in ongoing disputes with the land company for more than a year over the water supply in the region.
In a statement, Ashley Takitani Leahey, vice president of Maui Land & Pineapple, said the lawsuit was an effort to pressure the company into giving control of the water system to Yanai. The lawsuit claims lack merit, she said, and the company will defend against them.
“We refuse to be bullied by a billionaire who seeks control of the system while refusing to pay his fair share of the costs to maintain it,” Leahey said.
But TY Management says Maui Land & Pineapple has allowed the Honokōhau Ditch System to deteriorate so badly that it threatens the supply of irrigation water to the West Maui customers who depend on it.
Instead of paying for the required repairs itself, the company fraudulently labeled nearly $500,000 in repair costs as routine maintenance so it could pass the cost onto TY Management, the complaint says. The company raised TY Management’s water rate more than 300% over the course of a year, the lawsuit says.
The company raised rates on its other customers as well. Agricultural customers saw a spike of 346% and Maui County’s non-potable water rates rose by 673%, the complaint says.
The lawsuit accuses Maui Land & Pineapple executives of fraud and racketeering and seeks unspecified damages, including reimbursement of the inflated water rate payments. TY Management is seeking a court order to stop the allegedly fraudulent billing.
Lawsuit Alleges ‘Textbook Financial Fraud’
TY Management purchased its golf courses from Maui Land & Pineapple in 2009 and 2010 and arranged water delivery agreements as part of each sale. According to the agreements, Maui Land & Pineapple bills TY Management monthly for irrigation water and can adjust rates to cover costs of “operating and maintaining” the water system, the lawsuit says.
The agreement forbids Maui Land & Pineapple from passing on the cost of capital improvements, replacements or repairs and says the company must pay those expenses itself.
But in its complaint, TY Management says two of the company’s senior executives, Race Randle and Kainoa Casco, as well as the company’s contractor, Hawaiʻi Water Service, plotted to disguise the costs of major improvements as routine maintenance in budget documents used to determine water rates.
Emails between Maui Land & Pineapple executives obtained by lawyers for TY Management show the executives discussing how to edit the documents to make certain expenses look like maintenance costs.
“Change all “Corrective Maintenance” or “Repairs” to Deferred Maintenance,” reads one email from Casco sent May 1, 2025.
Attached to the email is a budget document with dozens of red lines striking out “repair” and replacing it with words like “maintain,” “maintenance” or “deferred maintenance.”
In some instances, the edits don’t make grammatical or logical sense.
For example, a bullet point reading, “Increased costs to repair damage to roadways, trails or infrastructure due to storm events,” was changed to read, “Increased costs to maintain damage to roadways, trails or infrastructure due to storm events.”
In another instance, “Road repair due to landslides” was changed to “Road maintenance due to landslides.”
“There is no such thing as “maintenance due to landslides;” the complaint says. “Clearing a landslide is a repair.”
The complaint also notes that it doesn’t make sense to pay a contractor to “maintain damage” to roadways, trails or infrastructure.
“Damage is repaired, not maintained,” the complaint says. “Casco’s redlines are textbook financial fraud.”
In another example, a $35,000-project to repair a small wooden footbridge called the Honolua intake bridge was relabeled as “Bridge Maintenance.” But photos of the bridge before the work was completed show most of the floor boards missing or destroyed, making the bridge completely impassible. A photo of the bridge after the work was done shows the boards had been entirely replaced.
“Calling this work “Maintenance” was false, and Casco and (Hawaiʻi Water Service) knew it,” the lawsuit says.
Geoff Fulks, general manager of Hawaiʻi Water Service, which is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, said in a statement the utility had not yet been served the lawsuit.
“Hawaiʻi Water Service has long served our customers and the community with integrity and professionalism,” he said, “and we will vigorously defend against any claims to the contrary.”
In all, Maui Land & Pineapple “mislabeled” at least $447,000 of repairs, replacements and capital improvements in 2025 to justify its rate hikes, the lawsuit says. Between January 2025 and 2026, the company raised its water rate by 339% from 49 cents per thousand gallons to $2.15 per thousand gallons.
West Maui Water Shortages
TY Management also sued Maui Land & Pineapple in 2025, alleging that its failure to maintain the Honokōhau Ditch System led to water shortages in West Maui.
That year, water customers were told not to use any irrigation water for 136 days and to restrict their usage by nearly half for 18 days. Maui Land & Pineapple blamed a historic drought for the shortage.
The Professional Golfer’s Association Tour, which holds its Sentry Tournament at TY Management’s Kapalua Plantation Golf Course each year, canceled the tournament in 2026 because of a lack of water to the course.
Maui Land & Pineapple filed a counterclaim in that dispute accusing TY Management of using water to irrigate its golf courses that had been designated for fire protection. TY Management denied the allegations. That lawsuit is ongoing.
West Maui is designated a special Water Management Area by the state’s Commission on Water Resource Management, meaning water use in the area must comply with state standards. Water users, for example, have to obtain permits for any new water use. The commission also regulates water usage to ensure enough is flowing to support aquatic life, recreation and Native Hawaiian cultural practices, such as taro farming.
Maui County and Maui Land & Pineapple signed a non-binding agreement in May to transfer control of most of the water system serving West Maui, including the Honokōhau Ditch System, to the county and bring it under public control. The agreement is still pending.
Maui Mayor Richard Bissen has made it a goal of his administration to bring more water in West Maui under public control to protect it for housing, agriculture and emergency preparedness. He said in March the county was in negotiations with several private companies to acquire water system assets that, if finalized, would raise the public stewardship of drinking water on Maui from 45% to 93%.
