{"id":85726,"date":"2017-01-30T12:00:04","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T12:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=85726"},"modified":"2017-01-23T09:36:19","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T09:36:19","slug":"mark-zuckerberg-is-suing-to-force-native-hawaiians-off-their-ancestral-land-to-build-an-island-resort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/01\/mark-zuckerberg-is-suing-to-force-native-hawaiians-off-their-ancestral-land-to-build-an-island-resort\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Zuckerberg Is Suing to Force Native Hawaiians off Their Ancestral Land to Build an Island Resort"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

19 Jan 2017 – <\/em>Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg ended 2016 by suing hundreds of people native to Hawaii, apparently so that he can have 700 acres of land all to himself.<\/p>\n

The billionaire\u2019s lawsuit, filed on December 30th, was the culmination of\u00a0a three year effort by Zuckerberg to acquire a list of names\u00a0of the people who also have rights to pieces of a 700 acre tract of land on the island of Kauai \u2013 for which Zuckerberg spent $100 million back in 2014.<\/p>\n

Hawaiian property laws are tricky, largely the result of inheritance policies put in place back when it was still a kingdom in the 1800\u2019s. Put simply, hundreds of Hawaiians often own a part of the same\u00a0land.<\/p>\n

Zuckerberg has spent over three years researching and identifying\u00a0all the other owners to his land, evidently in an effort to use Hawaiian law to force a buyout.<\/p>\n

Zuckerberg has reportedly built a six foot brick and mortar wall<\/a> around the property this past year. The property is being used as a secluded compound for the billionaire and his family.<\/a><\/p>\n

Hawaiian\u2019s \u201cquiet title\u201d permits a judge to decide on who has rightful ownership of a given piece of Hawaiian land, and to potentially auction the land off if co-owners cannot come to an agreement. (It is not difficult to imagine Zuckerberg winning these auctions, given his 53.3 billion dollar net worth.)<\/a><\/p>\n

Zuckerberg\u2019s lawyer Keoni Shultz released the following statement<\/a>\u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is common in Hawaii to have small parcels of land within the boundaries of a larger tract, and for the title to these smaller parcels to have become broken or clouded over time.\u00a0Quiet title actions are the standard and prescribed process to identify all potential co-owners, determine ownership, and ensure that, if there are other co-owners, each receives appropriate value for their ownership share.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

If a land owner wanted to contest the buyout, a case such as this could potentially cost over $200,000. Zuckerberg has said through his lawyers in the past that he does not plan on\u00a0resorting to these measures if the defendants can prove their interest in the land parcels in question.<\/p>\n

Those named by the lawsuit were given 20 days to respond, or else forfeit all claims to the property.<\/p>\n

__________________________________<\/p>\n

Nathan Wellman is a Los Angeles-based journalist, author, and playwright. Follow him on Twitter: @LightningWOW<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 usuncut.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

19 Jan 2017 – Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg ended 2016 by suing hundreds of people native to Hawaii, apparently so that he can have 700 acres of land all to himself. Those named by the lawsuit filed on December 30th were given 20 days to respond, or else forfeit all claims to the property.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85726\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}