Hawaii’s Scoundrels
November 18th, 2008
Sammy Amalu
In the 1960’s, a con man who was descended from Hawaiian Royalty (King William Lunalilo) became disgruntled with the disenfranchisement of Hawaiians and decided to do something about it. Amazingly, one of the travel industry’s giants became a willing participant.
Sammy Amalu, in 1962, almost put together a deal to buy the Sheraton-Waikiki Hotel and other prime Hawaii properties for more than $75 million. Sheraton bought into the con and the deal got heavy press coverage. Amalu – his true identity kept secret – had real estate agents and lawyers salivating for their cut of the deal. He actually wrote and proffered the checks. But he didn’t have any money at the time; was living modestly in a small Waikiki hotel. So he went to jail.
While imprisoned, Amalu began writing letters to his former high school classmate, Thurston Twigg-Smith, who then was publisher of the Honolulu Advertiser, Hawaii’s largest daily paper. The publisher found the letters to be amusing as well as well-written and Amalu began writing regular columns for the Advertiser while he was in prison, and he continued to write them after his release.
The columns ran for almost 20 years.
Amalu died in 1986 at the age of 68.
Ron Rewald
In a story bizarre enough to plot a Grisham thriller, Ronald Rewald, who had been a salesman for a Milwaukee sporting goods store, arrived in Honolulu in the early 1980s to head an investment company he called Bishop, Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham and Wong. Wong, a real estate agent, was Rewald’s actual partner. The other three names were not actually people; but were among the most respected names in Hawaii’s business history. (In New York, the company might have been called Rockefeller, Harriman, Rewald, Roosevelt & Wong.) Incredibly, no one questioned their authenticity. Offering “guaranteed” growth potential, BBRD&W accepted investment funds from many of Hawaii’s leading business people and others with high private incomes. Can you say “Ponzi”? Rewald began to spend lavishly, purchasing a polo club and its grounds, a couple of ranches, a sting of polo ponies, an exotic car dealership and an elaborate oceanfront estate in East Honolulu.
Rewald was actually an operative of a large and secret CIA operation based in Honolulu. He was encouraged to keep a high profile and mingle with local movers and shakers. The operation allegedly had taken over from the infamous CIA operation known as Nugan Hand Bank, which was staffed with several CIA officials and had offices throughout the world — primarily in the Far East. It included drug money laundering, helping to hide Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos’ assets, and setting up and funding secret bank accounts for some very well known U.S. political figures.
When his cover was blown, he attempted suicide in Waikiki and the story was broken by a Honolulu television reporter. The CIA and Justice Department filed charges against him. A federal judge blocked him from having CIA personnel appear as witnesses, and barred him from introducing hundreds of documents showing he was, indeed, a CIA agent. Rewald was sentenced to 81 years for allegedly making off with large sums of money. This apparently was the money that the CIA moved after his cover was blown. Rewald was released on parole from the Federal Correctional Institution Terminal Island facility in California. He was not to be eligible for parole until 2015, but a back injury he suffered in prison may have been a factor in his early release. He’s eligible to receive $150 per month because of the injury, which confines him to a wheelchair.
Posted by Jim Winpenny
 Your Blogger’s Side Bar
I had brief encounters with Sammy Amalo and a more involved relationship with Ron Rewald. In 1972, I had just arrived in Honolulu with my family from the East Coast and was creative director of the Carlos Rivas advertising agency. Carlos and I had become close friends and he had invited me and my wife Mary to the Polo matches at Mokuleia on Oahu’s North Shore on behalf of Sammy Amalo, “a local celebrity.” After the matches, Carlos led us to the club house and introduced us to Sammy, who was dressed all in white, with a plantation hat and flowing scarf. He was an ebullient man who appeared to be in his late 60s. (I learned later he was in his mid 50s.) Everyone else there seemed to be his friend and he greeted us all warmly. “Please help yourself at the bar,” he urged. “And enjoy some of the wonderful food.” So we did. After only about a half-hour, Carlos approached Mary and me. He said, “It’s time to split. Wait here a second.” He went to the bar, wrote a check, and handed it to the manager/bartender. As we headed for the parking lot Carlos explained, “Sammy considers himself to the host of these gatherings, but he never pays for anything. He doesn’t have any money. We all just go along and act grateful. It’s a sort of tradition.” Mary and I continued to go to the matches on Sundays during the summers, and afterwards we occasionally would drop by the club house for the Sammy drill. But we didn’t do that regularly; it was pretty expensive. * * * One day Karen told us she had been invited to the movies and dinner by “a really nice guy.” Jimmy Rewald arrived dutifully at our door for scrutiny promptly that evening at the appointed time. He was tall for his age, well-dressed and engaging with an easy manner and winning smile. His limousine idled in our driveway and the driver stood ready by the open passenger-side rear door. Jimmy told us he lived “up the road,” and described the residence. We knew of it. It was on a prized piece of property on Kalanianaole Highway at the Diamond Head edge of Maunalua Bay. I inwardly celebrated the fact that Karen would be taken off our hands and set for life. Mary bluntly asked Jimmy what his father did and was told that he was chairman of a Downtown investment firm. He didn’t mention the company’s name. Karen’s and Jimmy’s relationship grew warm. They saw each other often, always transported by the limo, and continued to date until Jimmy left for college at USC. (One of our more difficult parental decisions was whether to allow Karen to join him for a big weekend there. We did.) In the meantime, Ronald Rewald’s corporate profile was skyrocketing as he appeared in photos with celebrities and attended functions with bigwigs such as the governor and other movers and shakers. I asked Karen if the corporate name actually was related to the famous Bishops, Baldwins and Dillinghams. She didn’t know; didn’t care. We became friends with the Rewalds. He had bought the polo Club at which we had met Sammy Amalu. When Mary turned 40, Ron “loaned” me the club on a polo Sunday, I rented a giant tent and some busses for transportation to and from Honolulu, laid on the booze and food, and Mary had her best birthday ever. When the top of his pyramid crumbled and the bottom fell out, Ron went to jail on Oahu while he awaited federal trial. Mary at the time was publisher of Island Business Magazine, and used our relative intimacy with the Rewalds to begin interviewing Ron in prison for a series of articles. I put a stop to that when CIA involvement was suggested and I envisioned shady characters planting bugs and peering at our family through binoculars. We’ve had no contact with Ron since. Karen remains in loose touch with Jimmy, who married and works as a security guard in Southern California. Jim Winpenny |
Entry Filed under: Hawaii Vacation Links, Kauai, Maui, Molokai
4 Comments Add your own
1. will blanke | January 23rd, 2009 at 1:23 am
i used to work for ron rewald and he is not confined to a wheelchair by any means. he is a shaky, unstable man and i have nothing good to say about him with the way he behaved and treated people. he is in charge of the mailroom and the entire sales operation at APA talent/literary agency in beverly hills. i think it’s pretty despicable of that agency hiring him with knowing his past. and especially putting him in charge of sales.
put it this way, the year before i worked there, ron rewald saved the agency millions of dollars. i don’t know the details of how that works nor do i care. he is a very disturbing man and says things to others when is ironically marks all of his bad traits in the ’80’s.
he seemed strange when he interviewed me, but i was hired by the agents of this agency. he seemed only strange for a while and i didn’t think anything of it. but then one day, someone in the mailroom told me to look him up on the internet. so i did. and then i began to watch him with a careful eye and most probably over-analyzing his every move. there were probably quite a few times he didn’t mean anything by how he talked and how he behaved, but i noticed some definite remarks and learning even stranger things about him as i saw him every day.
he still has a CIA wall fixture hanging in his office. he also has pictures of him playing polo. the main thing that disturbed me was that he appeared to be completely bipolar or deeply malevolent some days. he would say such nice things in the morning and then say such terrible things in the afternoon. it was too “black and white” with him.
i once got into an argument with someone else in the mailroom about something minor. the person and i got over it quickly and shook hands. that was it. but since ron rewald has the entire building under surveillance and wired to his house, he saw the argument from home. the next day, he berated me for arguing and told me to “look into the mirror.” i was very offended and even more offended when he admitted the next day that he was going to fire me but he talked to the other person and that person said that there was no problem and that both of us were in the wrong. ron rewald sort of apologized and said that he doesn’t like to make decisions when he’s upset. so after that, i felt like my whole job was depending on what mood ron rewald was in that day.
i soon left the company because i felt like i was walking on egg shells every day and being watched by ron rewald via his cameras. ron rewald got out of jail simply because he was friends with president george h. w. bush. and now he runs the sales in a talent agency. i’m sorry that i ever met this disgusting person.
2. A Funny Kind of Homeless &hellip | March 12th, 2009 at 8:25 am
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3. Martin | April 26th, 2009 at 9:36 am
I knew Ron Rewald between 1990 and 1995. I forgot the years but I was his cell mate at Terminal Island. I shared a small prison cell with hin 24/7 so we got to be friends. He was released and I went on to serve the remainder of my sentence in Sheridan Oregon. Ron was always kind to me and I can’t really say anything bad about him. Since he worked in the recreation department he even got us a personal television set for our cell. Something no one else had. He did hurt his back in prison which caused him to have to walk on his heels all the time. He also had to use a catheter to urinate which could not have been very pleasant. My 17 year sentence was for a drug offense, and I was released in 2003. I don’t know who reads these comments here. They seem to be pretty obscure, but if anyone was to know more about my relationship with Ron Rewald in prison they can contact me at mgk731@gmail.com.
4. Jim Winpenny&hellip | May 23rd, 2009 at 6:35 pm
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