Quotes From Regulators and Newspapers Provide Context About Sandwich Isles Communications (SIC)

“In 2005, Sandwich Isles had the dubious distinction of operating the nation’s most expensive rural telephone network. That year the federal government paid Sandwich Isle about $13,700 a customer, or 100 times the average for rural phone service on the mainland.”

“Since 2002, Sandwich Isles Communications has collected $242,489,940 from the federal Universal Service Fund to serve no more than 3,659 customers. During that same time, Albert Hee, the owner of Sandwich Isles’s parent company Waimana Enterprises and affiliate ClearCom, apparently used the company as his family’s personal piggy bank. For example, the companies apparently paid $96,000 so that Hee could receive two-hour massages twice a week; $119,909 for personal expenses, including family trips to Disney World, Tahiti, France, and Switzerland and a four-day family vacation at the Mauna Lani resort; $736,900 for college tuition and housing expenses for Hee’s three children; $1,300,000 for a home in Santa Clara, California for his children’s use as college housing; and $1,676,685 in wages and fringe benefits for his wife and three children.”

October 19, 2015
Ajit Pai, Former FCC Commissioner
FCC Public Notice

The FCC calls SIC’s actions “egregious” after finding the company improperly received $27 million in federal funds that “were intended to benefit the people of the Hawaiian Homeland [sic] but instead lined the pockets of the company’s owner.”

December 5, 2016
FCC Order

“No other carrier receiving high-cost subsidies is owned or controlled by a convicted felon, currently incarcerated, who has diverted millions of dollars in corporate funds to pay for personal expenses such as massages, vacations, and college tuition.”

January 23, 2018
FCC Court Filing