'A family against a billionaire': twist in battle over Zuckerberg's Hawaiian estate
Parcels near Facebook CEO’s property auctioned off amid lengthy fight over Native Hawaiian land rights
Amid angry shouts of “hewa!” (wrong!) and “illegal sales”, four parcels of land surrounded by the 700-acre estate of the Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, were auctioned Friday on the island of Kauai. But in a surprise twist, the bidder backed by Zuckerberg won only three of the parcels, while a rival group prevailed on the fourth.
In a contentious transaction, attorneys bid on behalf of their clients. On one side was a group led by several members of the holdout Rapozo family; on the other was the retired Hawaiian studies professor Carlos Andrade, a relative of the Rapozos said to have the financial backing of Zuckerberg. A commissioner read parcel numbers as the attorneys quietly called their bids until all four parcels were sold: parcels 19, 25, and 26 went for $300,000, $460,000, and $300,000 to Andrade. But parcel 17 was bought for $700,000 by the Rapozos. Andrade and the self-described “holdout” Rapozos are descendants of Manuel Rapozo, a Portuguese citizen who emigrated from the Azores to Hawaii in 1882.
“A family against a billionaire. That’s what this is. It’s one family against a billionaire. Having to bid for our own property!” shouted one of the land owners, Alika Guerrero, dressed in a black T-shirt reading “Culture, Heritage, Ohana (family)”. The four land parcels, called kuleana in Hawaiian, range from 5,200 sq ft to 1.59 acres and are entirely surrounded by Zuckerberg’s property. They were ordered to be auctioned by fifth circuit judge Kathleen Watanabe in an attempt to resolve a dispute that has pitted relatives and neighbors against one other. Even before the midday auction, family and community members protested outside the courthouse, holding Hawaiian flags, ceremonial ti plant leaves, and handmade signs bearing slogans like “Mark you Zuck!” and “Study kuleana, Zuckerberg!”
Angry members of the Rapozos marked Zuckerberg as absent, even as he was being schooled in the complex world of traditional Hawaiian land ownership. Andrade did not attend the auction or respond to earlier requests for comment, but he did make his case for quiet title in an op-ed column today in Kauai’s Garden Island newspaper. Andrade maintains he alone cleared, surveyed, and maintained the parcels, planted crops, paid taxes, and built a dwelling on the remote, undeveloped land.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/23/mark-zuckerberg-hawaii-estate-land-parcels-auction