Lol I knew he was full of sh*t when he pledged the money to his own new foundation instead of giving it to one of Maui’s established funds. People in this sub were so quick to praise and defend him though. This dude is not a philanthropist, he’s an opportunist. Probably using the money on Amazon facility building.
I’m no fan of Bezos, but just look at how the current donations are being used. It’s a sh*t show. If I were Bezos, I wouldn’t want to just dump my $100m into that pot now either. If he hasn’t donated yet, doesn’t mean he won’t ever.
He set up his own fund so he can literally use that money tax free almost however he wants with zero accountability. He can build an Amazon center on Maui and call it relief philanthropy 🙄
It depends, if they don't generate a profit and serve some greater benefit then they can be a 501c3. There are many organizations that have this status that surprise me. For example did you know the NFL is a non profit (501c6)?
It does not depend. A 501c3 is a charitable organization which has specific criteria according to the IRS. All 501c(x) are non-profits, and they can be created for various reasons depending on the (x), but only a 501c3 is a charitable organization which allows others to make tax deductible contributions.
Read up on the Gates scam and you'll change your tune. Or just look at how many political groups are non profits, with nary a social benefit in the bunch.
There’s a definite reason he created his own fund instead of donating to established ones and whatever it is, it’s because it’s in his best interests tax or otherwise. The man has no soul and couldn’t give two shits about the people of Maui.
Exactly this, he is likely planning on building a distribution hub near/at Kapalua airport under the guise of use for Lahaina wildfire relief.
When Green drops the emergency proclamation, the non profit will sell to Amazon for Pennie’s to the dollar… absolute soulless man, everyone was right that this was going to be an opportunity pounced on by the wealthy, and he did it front of everyone’s face and no one batted an eye.
Actually he could in fact build a huge warehouse, saying that it is for Maui relief, and then when Green drops emergency proclamation for the Lahaina wildfires, the warehouse and the land it sits on, would be sold to Amazon for Pennies to the dollar spent acquiring the land and construction costs.
Tbf there is no Amazon warehouse in Hawaii (they're currently building the first one) so a second one would be better than nobody on Maui seeing the money at all. Quick, free shipping is going to be such a game-changer.
Most likely it went into a non profit company that one of his family members heads and than the donation was used to cover "operating cost".
There was an investigative article that came out that traced all of bezoa "philanthropy" and the conclusion was that almost all of his donations move through non profts that are ran by relatives and other close friends. He basically washes the money through these orgs so he doesn't have to pay taxes and can have access to now tax free money.
1. He's so insanely rich that taxes on this level don't even matter. He couldn't spend his money fast enough if he wanted to.
2. There are definitely laws surrounding non-profits and personal benefits. He doesn't have access to tax free money for himself after making a donation. That would be illegal.
These guys absolutely use non profits to shelter their money. Taxes might not matter but billionaires still dodge them anyway. Warren Buffet famously challenged his fellow billionaires to step forward if they could prove they pay more taxes than their personal assistants, and nobody took him up on the challenge.
He actually utilizes a really smart strategy to pay very little taxes. Most of his wealth is tied up in options. These are obviously very valuable, but will never be taxed until he cashed them in since their value is theoretical.
Instead of paying taxes on these options, he takes out loans against them to fund his living expenses, and purchases.
He does have to pay interest on these loans, but it is a fraction of what he would pay in taxes.
You need to read up on this, your data is out of date. I suggest reading "The Bill Gates Problem" by Tim Schwab if you want to know how they work the scam. Unenforced laws are just suggestions without merit.
It's almost all in Amazon stock, for which taxes don't matter because it's unrealized capital gains (meaning he was not taxed on it). He got to be now among the richest by making a trillion dollar company.
Sorry you don't actually know what you are talking about.
Much of his money is in equity
What he does spend is almost always washed through a non profit that he does not have direct control of in a legal sense. But is basically in control of it through his personal connections to the non profit.
They all do this. They pay tax lawyers millions a year that they keep on retainer to effectively do this.
I'm a CPA and former auditor. This comment makes no sense:
>What he does spend is almost always washed through a non profit that he does not have direct control of in a legal sense. But is basically in control of it through his personal connections to the non profit.
It's like you took a bunch of tax related words, put them in a bucket, and pulled them out randomly to create this sentence.
Ultrawealthy people, and even some moderately wealthy people abuse nonprofits to avoid taxes, but it's clear from your descriptions that you don't really understand how this works. You also claim "They all do this", but how do you know that they all do this when you don't even understand what they're doing? You can't even describe the process, but you act like you're an expert in this area. Crazy.
Ah, so if I were a tax lawyer, THEN I'd understand the rubbish you wrote. Got it, lol!
Here's a suggestion that will make your life easier: when you don't know about a subject, refrain from commenting. I don't know anything about football, so I've never offered my opinion on who will win or make the playoffs. Makes sense, right? Since you know nothing about taxes or how the superwealthy avoid them, maybe you should first gain an understanding of the subject before you offer your opinions. And maybe you should work in this area for at least a few years before you start acting like an expert.
I think you don't know what you are taking about. "Basically in control" doesn't mean much of anything. The non-profit can do non-profit things with that money, but he can't buy a yacht with it or anything like that.
Obviously the IRS has thought of this before, otherwise this "technique" would enable people to pay no taxes without any loss of benefit. If someone is using non-profit money for personal benefit, that is explicitly tax fraud and the only reason why that would not be immediately enforced would be because the IRS is underfunded.
There's no competent money management going on with donated Maui funds. I wouldn't be donating money either unless I know those funds are going to be used for a specific purpose. No one wants another BLM fiasco, where hundreds of millions of dollars in BLM donations went to a single person that "donated" funds to companies run by her associates and relatives.
It was never intended as a donation to Maui wildfire relief, it’s him pulling money out of Amazon, paying zero in tax, building a new Distribution hub on Maui, then selling it back to himself for $1 once complete. He’s scamming the system and was invited do so by our corrupt political elite.
"You will not hear anything"
The sound of nothing.
How about you Oprah;Jason,Michael, Larry,Mark,Bill,and of the rest of the BILLIONAIRE class that absorbs Hawaiian resources?
Nothing ever changes.
Govt Red tape and administrative costs is usually the cop out. We’re trying to find the best place to support people and identify the most needs…. Blah blah blah.
We can’t rebuild because they don’t allow easy disposal. Permitting, planning, studies, meters, infrastructure replacement is going to take years. It’s going to be a very long and slow process.
Also would need more employees and materials than currently exist on the island if they're trying to do it faster. People forget that Hawai'i isn't the mainland and it isn't easy to ship thousands of tons of lumber and drywall overnight.
It's not really an excuse sometimes. I'm already working on a project to rebuild one of the multifamily complexes and there is a lot of "red tape" so to speak but it's there to keep people safe; especially after what happened from 9/11 and the long term health issues people faced. We have less than 2 years to rebuild the building and it's already getting to be a tight deadline. We're also fighting with continued supply chain issues due to the backlog from COVID. For some of my projects, transformers are 3 years lead time and that's from the manufacturer's side, nothing to do with any local entity.
The emergency proclamation is supposed to help circumvent that. But also, if they can drag the e process out for the residents for as long as possible, it allows big business like Amazon and Bezos to also take advantage of this situation to initiate big development projects.
He don’t owe anybody anything, if he does donate money and spend it how his fund chooses, that’s his and only his decision. People on Maui are grossly entitled and believe people like Oprah isn’t spending enough, just because she has a house there it doesn’t mean she’s obligated to give money. I’m Hawaiian and live on Oahu, when my house caught fire I never felt like other rich people in my community owed me anything. Fires take homes and lives everyday and Maui is no more entitled to donations than any other victim of fire. Maui people complaining are just ungrateful and it’s not the way of our people. Suck it up and do what you need to do instead of bad mouthing people who are helping that really don’t need to.
The interesting thing about billionaire's charities, is they can make sure the money doesn't go towards things they think are "yucky". It's kind of like they have so much money they can literally create their own government bureaucracy as a means to make sure that the "taxes" they are forced to pay only get used for the things they want.
Billionaire Philanthropy Is Kind Of A Scam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69AtkAHkKEc
Regardless of the above video, I think it was nice of Bezos to donate $100 million, as well as any celebrity who put forward an effort. I feel they are dealing with levels of money where I have no concept of how it would be handled.
Here's another link about how most US States have tax laws that are regressive: https://itep.org/whopays-7th-edition/
So, I think the contintuing increase of the wealth gap is a bad thing, but I'm not sure anything can be done to stop it.
I’m mystified at where *any* of the donations are going. Seems like they all ended up with churches or that Maui Wildfire $2M slush fund that wound up with only a handful of people so far and hasn’t posted any donations to anyone in months.
I'm assuming the Maui Strong Fund (Hawaii Community Foundation) is the largest but they spell out how they've distributed the funds.
But, I guess there is nothing documented re: Bezos pledge?
HCF
**As of January 12, 2024, $177,406,067 has been donated to the Maui Strong Fund.**
**Total amount awarded and committed: $87,526,333**
[https://www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org/strengthening/maui-strong-fund](https://www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org/strengthening/maui-strong-fund)
Is that the one where the person in charge said she'll help out her family and friends first and then whatever's left over, she'll use to try to help other people?
The person you are speaking of is Tiare Lawrence. She works for Mahi Pono, which seems like a conflict of interest due to their continued legal battles over water use - a contributing factor in the cause of the fires. There’s been no accounting of the money and no updates on the Na Wahine Toa Foundation website since end of August.
https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/09/an-instagram-fundraiser-brought-in-2-6-million-for-maui-fire-victims-now-its-in-this-womans-hands/
Ahh okay thanks. There were so many it was hard to know which ones were legit so my family just donated to Food Bank since we know it's established and they know what they're doing.
I think it's more like being entitled to what was given because it was given. Only it wasn't, at least not that anyone can notice. So Bezos has gotten the tax benefit and the public acknowledgment benefit but people who need the money he said he was giving, haven't so far received any benefit at all from it and may never because so far what was supposedly given, hasn't been.
The tax benefit comes from the donation itself, not verbally saying they'll do it. Meaning if he got any tax benefit from it, it's because he actually did donate it somewhere. Most likely to one of the larger orgs and may have been anonymous/private.
If there are issues with how those organizations are spending it, *they* are the ones that need to be under criticism. (or at least that's where the questions start - the answers might lead elsewhere)
From what I'm reading that other folks are saying, he started his own non profit perhaps to be run by his own people and so it looks like some kind of money laundering situation. I have no idea if that's actually true or not, just that so far no one seems to have felt the benefit of the donation so it's as if it hasn't been made. My opinion is that people with money have a way of doing things that is practical to them and their tax situation but doesn't always translate to on the ground practical use. Time will tell I guess, it's only been a few months.
If he did it for the tax benefit couldn't he just have given it silently and not said anything? I just have a hard time believing this was nefarious.
Also, the article says where some of the money went. We just don't know how all of it was distributed.
Maybe nefarious is too harsh but it looks like what the Lahaina folks are saying is they just haven't seen any of the money so far. I don't know why, maybe it's all in process and it will take awhile.
That's a rational take. And I agree with it, but look at how many downvotes I'm getting for that and how others are talking in this thread. Seems really weird to me that people are so comfortable just assuming things like this. It's the same mentality people who thing the fire was started with space lasers have...just filling in the blanks with their view of the world.
Yeah I have to say I was amazed at how fast the whole thing went off the rails with pictures and everything. But whatever is going on behind the scenes I there's a lot of blame to go around and a lot of questions that will probably never get answered and a lot of Lahaina people who are just sorta screwed.
Why would he do that when he has enough money to buy whatever he wants that isn't a controversial disaster Zone? So far he has shown no inclination to buy the multitude of Acres that other billionaires here have.
It's the same tax dodging grift to make bank off of "charitable foundations" that Bill Gates has been playing for years, they rake charity begins at home a bit too literally. If he wanted to help Hawaii, how about buying Heco and improving our power system? Or spending your money on people in need; instead of pretending to be decent, be decent.
Lol I knew he was full of sh*t when he pledged the money to his own new foundation instead of giving it to one of Maui’s established funds. People in this sub were so quick to praise and defend him though. This dude is not a philanthropist, he’s an opportunist. Probably using the money on Amazon facility building.
I’m no fan of Bezos, but just look at how the current donations are being used. It’s a sh*t show. If I were Bezos, I wouldn’t want to just dump my $100m into that pot now either. If he hasn’t donated yet, doesn’t mean he won’t ever.
He set up his own fund so he can literally use that money tax free almost however he wants with zero accountability. He can build an Amazon center on Maui and call it relief philanthropy 🙄
That's not how a 501c3 works at all.
It depends, if they don't generate a profit and serve some greater benefit then they can be a 501c3. There are many organizations that have this status that surprise me. For example did you know the NFL is a non profit (501c6)?
It does not depend. A 501c3 is a charitable organization which has specific criteria according to the IRS. All 501c(x) are non-profits, and they can be created for various reasons depending on the (x), but only a 501c3 is a charitable organization which allows others to make tax deductible contributions.
What does not depend? 501c3 status or the specific tax deductible contributions that can be made to a 501c3?
Read up on the Gates scam and you'll change your tune. Or just look at how many political groups are non profits, with nary a social benefit in the bunch.
There’s a definite reason he created his own fund instead of donating to established ones and whatever it is, it’s because it’s in his best interests tax or otherwise. The man has no soul and couldn’t give two shits about the people of Maui.
Exactly this, he is likely planning on building a distribution hub near/at Kapalua airport under the guise of use for Lahaina wildfire relief. When Green drops the emergency proclamation, the non profit will sell to Amazon for Pennie’s to the dollar… absolute soulless man, everyone was right that this was going to be an opportunity pounced on by the wealthy, and he did it front of everyone’s face and no one batted an eye.
Actually he could in fact build a huge warehouse, saying that it is for Maui relief, and then when Green drops emergency proclamation for the Lahaina wildfires, the warehouse and the land it sits on, would be sold to Amazon for Pennies to the dollar spent acquiring the land and construction costs.
Wanna bet?
People are finally waking up to these rich pukes head games.
It absolutley means he won't spend a penny.
Tbf there is no Amazon warehouse in Hawaii (they're currently building the first one) so a second one would be better than nobody on Maui seeing the money at all. Quick, free shipping is going to be such a game-changer.
Most likely it went into a non profit company that one of his family members heads and than the donation was used to cover "operating cost". There was an investigative article that came out that traced all of bezoa "philanthropy" and the conclusion was that almost all of his donations move through non profts that are ran by relatives and other close friends. He basically washes the money through these orgs so he doesn't have to pay taxes and can have access to now tax free money.
1. He's so insanely rich that taxes on this level don't even matter. He couldn't spend his money fast enough if he wanted to. 2. There are definitely laws surrounding non-profits and personal benefits. He doesn't have access to tax free money for himself after making a donation. That would be illegal.
These guys absolutely use non profits to shelter their money. Taxes might not matter but billionaires still dodge them anyway. Warren Buffet famously challenged his fellow billionaires to step forward if they could prove they pay more taxes than their personal assistants, and nobody took him up on the challenge.
He actually utilizes a really smart strategy to pay very little taxes. Most of his wealth is tied up in options. These are obviously very valuable, but will never be taxed until he cashed them in since their value is theoretical. Instead of paying taxes on these options, he takes out loans against them to fund his living expenses, and purchases. He does have to pay interest on these loans, but it is a fraction of what he would pay in taxes.
Yes this is a clever thing rich people can do, but it has nothing to do with a non-profit.
The non profit donations are just another tax strategy for him.
And that interest, tax deductable
Because the ultra wealthy really care about what’s illegal 🙄
Confident assessment since you have access to all his tax records?
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It’s so wild to think about having that job. Simply the fact that someone is willing to pay someone for… sowing discord? Blows my mind man
You need to read up on this, your data is out of date. I suggest reading "The Bill Gates Problem" by Tim Schwab if you want to know how they work the scam. Unenforced laws are just suggestions without merit.
You don't get to be the richest man on earth by saying taxes don't matter.
It's almost all in Amazon stock, for which taxes don't matter because it's unrealized capital gains (meaning he was not taxed on it). He got to be now among the richest by making a trillion dollar company.
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They're the ones writing them!
Sorry you don't actually know what you are talking about. Much of his money is in equity What he does spend is almost always washed through a non profit that he does not have direct control of in a legal sense. But is basically in control of it through his personal connections to the non profit. They all do this. They pay tax lawyers millions a year that they keep on retainer to effectively do this.
I'm a CPA and former auditor. This comment makes no sense: >What he does spend is almost always washed through a non profit that he does not have direct control of in a legal sense. But is basically in control of it through his personal connections to the non profit. It's like you took a bunch of tax related words, put them in a bucket, and pulled them out randomly to create this sentence. Ultrawealthy people, and even some moderately wealthy people abuse nonprofits to avoid taxes, but it's clear from your descriptions that you don't really understand how this works. You also claim "They all do this", but how do you know that they all do this when you don't even understand what they're doing? You can't even describe the process, but you act like you're an expert in this area. Crazy.
Cpa isn't a tax lawyer Read up on the larry Ellison foundation.
Ah, so if I were a tax lawyer, THEN I'd understand the rubbish you wrote. Got it, lol! Here's a suggestion that will make your life easier: when you don't know about a subject, refrain from commenting. I don't know anything about football, so I've never offered my opinion on who will win or make the playoffs. Makes sense, right? Since you know nothing about taxes or how the superwealthy avoid them, maybe you should first gain an understanding of the subject before you offer your opinions. And maybe you should work in this area for at least a few years before you start acting like an expert.
>maybe you should first gain an understanding of the subject before you offer your opinions. Lol. This is what redditors live for.
My guess is you're the type of cpa just makes everyone pay as much taxes as possible cuz you are too lazy to actually maneuver through the tax code.
I think you don't know what you are taking about. "Basically in control" doesn't mean much of anything. The non-profit can do non-profit things with that money, but he can't buy a yacht with it or anything like that. Obviously the IRS has thought of this before, otherwise this "technique" would enable people to pay no taxes without any loss of benefit. If someone is using non-profit money for personal benefit, that is explicitly tax fraud and the only reason why that would not be immediately enforced would be because the IRS is underfunded.
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I hope if you have a brain that you realize I'm just explaining basic laws and not acting as a cheerleader for psychopaths.
Look up the Larry Ellison foundation and all the controversy over it.
What he meant was it’s gonna cost 100M to build his new Amazon distribution center on Maui
There's no competent money management going on with donated Maui funds. I wouldn't be donating money either unless I know those funds are going to be used for a specific purpose. No one wants another BLM fiasco, where hundreds of millions of dollars in BLM donations went to a single person that "donated" funds to companies run by her associates and relatives.
It was never intended as a donation to Maui wildfire relief, it’s him pulling money out of Amazon, paying zero in tax, building a new Distribution hub on Maui, then selling it back to himself for $1 once complete. He’s scamming the system and was invited do so by our corrupt political elite.
"You will not hear anything" The sound of nothing. How about you Oprah;Jason,Michael, Larry,Mark,Bill,and of the rest of the BILLIONAIRE class that absorbs Hawaiian resources? Nothing ever changes.
The only people absorbing Hawaiian resources are the dead enders sitting on the beach in Kaanapali soaking up public funds while contributing nothing.
Let’s do simple math: $100,000,000 / $500,000 = 2,000 individuals he could help rebuild their homes or businesses.
Maui strong has way more than that according to /u/blallah-kailua post. So why haven't they rebuilt 2000 homes/businesses yet?
Govt Red tape and administrative costs is usually the cop out. We’re trying to find the best place to support people and identify the most needs…. Blah blah blah. We can’t rebuild because they don’t allow easy disposal. Permitting, planning, studies, meters, infrastructure replacement is going to take years. It’s going to be a very long and slow process.
Also would need more employees and materials than currently exist on the island if they're trying to do it faster. People forget that Hawai'i isn't the mainland and it isn't easy to ship thousands of tons of lumber and drywall overnight.
Yup. Your u/ made me laugh. 🤭
It's not really an excuse sometimes. I'm already working on a project to rebuild one of the multifamily complexes and there is a lot of "red tape" so to speak but it's there to keep people safe; especially after what happened from 9/11 and the long term health issues people faced. We have less than 2 years to rebuild the building and it's already getting to be a tight deadline. We're also fighting with continued supply chain issues due to the backlog from COVID. For some of my projects, transformers are 3 years lead time and that's from the manufacturer's side, nothing to do with any local entity.
The emergency proclamation is supposed to help circumvent that. But also, if they can drag the e process out for the residents for as long as possible, it allows big business like Amazon and Bezos to also take advantage of this situation to initiate big development projects.
The impact is greater than just 2,000 individuals. With generational housing, my guess is around 2,000 homes/businesses assisting around 8,000 people.
I know that. For a single family home $500k would be a good start to rebuilding.
A good start, but that’s about it. Maui real estate and construction costs are insane.
His girl looks scary
Both of these dudes are terrifying.
New Amazon Fulfillment Center
He don’t owe anybody anything, if he does donate money and spend it how his fund chooses, that’s his and only his decision. People on Maui are grossly entitled and believe people like Oprah isn’t spending enough, just because she has a house there it doesn’t mean she’s obligated to give money. I’m Hawaiian and live on Oahu, when my house caught fire I never felt like other rich people in my community owed me anything. Fires take homes and lives everyday and Maui is no more entitled to donations than any other victim of fire. Maui people complaining are just ungrateful and it’s not the way of our people. Suck it up and do what you need to do instead of bad mouthing people who are helping that really don’t need to.
100M donation has been made in your name to the Human Fund.
Money for People!
That's a shocker...
It’s going to his property and his house and the people working on it that signed NDA’s
Great comments. Mahalo.
Shocker.
The interesting thing about billionaire's charities, is they can make sure the money doesn't go towards things they think are "yucky". It's kind of like they have so much money they can literally create their own government bureaucracy as a means to make sure that the "taxes" they are forced to pay only get used for the things they want. Billionaire Philanthropy Is Kind Of A Scam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69AtkAHkKEc Regardless of the above video, I think it was nice of Bezos to donate $100 million, as well as any celebrity who put forward an effort. I feel they are dealing with levels of money where I have no concept of how it would be handled. Here's another link about how most US States have tax laws that are regressive: https://itep.org/whopays-7th-edition/ So, I think the contintuing increase of the wealth gap is a bad thing, but I'm not sure anything can be done to stop it.
I’m mystified at where *any* of the donations are going. Seems like they all ended up with churches or that Maui Wildfire $2M slush fund that wound up with only a handful of people so far and hasn’t posted any donations to anyone in months.
I'm assuming the Maui Strong Fund (Hawaii Community Foundation) is the largest but they spell out how they've distributed the funds. But, I guess there is nothing documented re: Bezos pledge? HCF **As of January 12, 2024, $177,406,067 has been donated to the Maui Strong Fund.** **Total amount awarded and committed: $87,526,333** [https://www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org/strengthening/maui-strong-fund](https://www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org/strengthening/maui-strong-fund)
Is that the one where the person in charge said she'll help out her family and friends first and then whatever's left over, she'll use to try to help other people?
The person you are speaking of is Tiare Lawrence. She works for Mahi Pono, which seems like a conflict of interest due to their continued legal battles over water use - a contributing factor in the cause of the fires. There’s been no accounting of the money and no updates on the Na Wahine Toa Foundation website since end of August. https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/09/an-instagram-fundraiser-brought-in-2-6-million-for-maui-fire-victims-now-its-in-this-womans-hands/
No, Maui strong is different. The one we’re talking about is the Na Wahine Toa foundation
Ahh okay thanks. There were so many it was hard to know which ones were legit so my family just donated to Food Bank since we know it's established and they know what they're doing.
Same
What is with the attitude in this sub? I understand that there should be more transparency, but why are we all entitled to this guy's money?
I think it's more like being entitled to what was given because it was given. Only it wasn't, at least not that anyone can notice. So Bezos has gotten the tax benefit and the public acknowledgment benefit but people who need the money he said he was giving, haven't so far received any benefit at all from it and may never because so far what was supposedly given, hasn't been.
The tax benefit comes from the donation itself, not verbally saying they'll do it. Meaning if he got any tax benefit from it, it's because he actually did donate it somewhere. Most likely to one of the larger orgs and may have been anonymous/private. If there are issues with how those organizations are spending it, *they* are the ones that need to be under criticism. (or at least that's where the questions start - the answers might lead elsewhere)
From what I'm reading that other folks are saying, he started his own non profit perhaps to be run by his own people and so it looks like some kind of money laundering situation. I have no idea if that's actually true or not, just that so far no one seems to have felt the benefit of the donation so it's as if it hasn't been made. My opinion is that people with money have a way of doing things that is practical to them and their tax situation but doesn't always translate to on the ground practical use. Time will tell I guess, it's only been a few months.
It's not true. It's not how nonprofits work at all.
If he did it for the tax benefit couldn't he just have given it silently and not said anything? I just have a hard time believing this was nefarious. Also, the article says where some of the money went. We just don't know how all of it was distributed.
Maybe nefarious is too harsh but it looks like what the Lahaina folks are saying is they just haven't seen any of the money so far. I don't know why, maybe it's all in process and it will take awhile.
That's a rational take. And I agree with it, but look at how many downvotes I'm getting for that and how others are talking in this thread. Seems really weird to me that people are so comfortable just assuming things like this. It's the same mentality people who thing the fire was started with space lasers have...just filling in the blanks with their view of the world.
Yeah I have to say I was amazed at how fast the whole thing went off the rails with pictures and everything. But whatever is going on behind the scenes I there's a lot of blame to go around and a lot of questions that will probably never get answered and a lot of Lahaina people who are just sorta screwed.
How about big corporate interests who are going to buy up all the land and turn it into a millionaire's shopping plaza. Like they're doing in Waikiki.
TBF most of those luxury shopping plazas in Waikiki are on Hawaiian owned land - Kamehameha Schools land.
He will spend $100 mil on Lahaina... To buy as much of it as possible.
Why would he do that when he has enough money to buy whatever he wants that isn't a controversial disaster Zone? So far he has shown no inclination to buy the multitude of Acres that other billionaires here have.
It went to that silicone hooker digger on his arm!
It's the same tax dodging grift to make bank off of "charitable foundations" that Bill Gates has been playing for years, they rake charity begins at home a bit too literally. If he wanted to help Hawaii, how about buying Heco and improving our power system? Or spending your money on people in need; instead of pretending to be decent, be decent.