Adam and Mildred Pereira had been planning for their retirement for most of their 56-year marriage. But all their long hours of work, plus the scrimping and saving, were destroyed, they say, in just a few years by a couple
Adam and Mildred Pereira had been planning for their retirement for most of their 56-year marriage.
But all their long hours of work, plus the scrimping and saving, were destroyed, they say, in just a few years by a couple claiming to be representatives of the Hawaiian Kingdom and a Christian church.
And they are not alone. According to deputy prosecuting attorney Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho, nearly 20 Kauaians lost money and property because of the two former Kaua‘i, now Maui residents.
The couple, Steven R. Schaefer and April Esther Schaefer, will be sentenced in District Court in Lihu‘e Sept. 24. Both pleaded guilty in March to misdemeanor charges of filing a false statement, failure to file a tax return and 17 counts of third-degree theft.
While the Schaefers have agreed to pay some restitution, they will never be able to return what the Pereiras and other Kaua‘i residents lost.
One of the more difficult parts is that, Iseri-Carvalho said, while the Schaefers apparently only took about $100,000, they caused millions of their victims’ dollars to be lost.
“Most of the people targeted were old, very religious,” she said. They “used religion as a means of getting trust and getting to pay (Schaefer) the money. (He) gave the impression that he was an agent of God.”
Saying they represented the Hawaiian kingdom, and providing authentic-looking documents, the Schaefers asked victims to turn over their tax payments, mortgages, even credit card bills. They were told they no longer had to pay them. They qualified for mortgage discharge, the Schaefers said.
According to the Pereiras, they were told that if they just gave the Schaefers a fee to set up a trust, when the rightful Hawaiian Kingdom was restored, they would be given their land back, and huge chunks of others.
They also paid fees for Hawaiian driver’s licenses, birth certificates, and other documents that proved to be fake or were never received.
“He said he was a man of God, ‘Just trust me,’” said Adam Pereira, 78. “He wiped us out completely.”
“We know that this ‘state’ of Hawaii was stolen by the U.S. government,” he added. “He came with all this paperwork. (Schaefer told us) ‘give me the paperwork. I’ll fix it up, you’ll never have to pay.’”
According to a number of the victims, some of whom wished not to be identified, Schaefer represented himself as Attorney General of the Kingdom of Hawaii under James Akahinui.
Akahinui, who claims to be the grandnephew of Queen Liliuokalani and the rightful king of the Hawaiian islands, provided them with papers of citizenship, passports, and others, the Pereiras, and others said.
John Rego, Jr., was appointed Sergeant at Arms and Chief of Security for the Hawaiian Kingdom.
He said he still has the paperwork. He and his family even traveled with Akahinui to New York to go to a United Nations Ball.
But he hasn’t heard from the King in years.
“I still haven’t heard from him,” Rego said.
As for Steven Schaefer, “I believed in him as a pastor. I put my heart and soul into him,” Rego said. “We were close with” him and his wife.
“Schaefer is very charismatic, articulate, and intelligent,” said Iseri-Carvalho.
Schaefer, when reached at his work, Blue Hawaiian Helicopters on Maui, said he would return a phone call after talking to his attorneys. He never called back.
Hayden Aluli, Schaefer’s lawyer, said he would not comment on a pending case. April Schaefer’s lawyer, Mimi Desjardins, also did not return a call seeking comment.
The Pereiras owned four houses, along with scores of goats and horses, on their over 27 acres of land in Wailua Homesteads before they met the Schaefers in 1997.
Now, they struggle to hold on to the home they’ve lived in for most of their lives.
Because they didn’t pay their taxes or their mortgage on the land, most of it was auctioned off to pay for the outstanding bills.
They still own five acres — but they traded the pasture land so they can stay in the home they built.
At one point, they lived in a tent for three months, while the rest of the property was sold off. At the time, Adam Pereira said, the Schaefers were living in a condo in Princeville.
The livestock was sold, too, at a loss, to pay outstanding debts. Even their Social Security was withheld.
“We’re still paying to help catch up,” Adam said.
What was supposed to be a comfortable retirement ended up being extremely painful, as the couple encountered health problems.
And a dozen other Kaua‘i residents lost homes as well.
“A lot of dedicated churchgoers, good people, got hurt,” said the husband.
“Some (people) turned away from God,” said Mildred Pereira, 75. “He was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
According to the couple and others, the Schaefers arrived on Kaua‘i from O‘ahu in 1997 and claimed to be affiliated with Grace Redemption Church.
They instantly got involved with the church, said Jerry Pena, a former pastor at Grace Christian, and now the pastor of Body of Christ Church in Lihu‘e.
“We joined the church and Steven Schaefer was a member,” said Pena in a phone interview.
When a former pastor left around 1998, Pena said, he became the senior pastor. But Schaefer and Pena engaged in a power struggle, and Steven Schaefer “would not recognize me as pastor.”
Pena said he voiced problems to the Honolulu branch of the church, but was unsatisfied with the result and left to be the pastor at Body of Christ.
Steven Schaefer, who, according to Iseri-Carvalho was never ordained, took over the duties as senior pastor.
The Schaefers moved into one of the Pereiras’ homes, while another became the church.
“We were doing real good until then,” Adam said. “We used to help him, a lot. All the (congregants) were helping, but he refused to pay the bills.”
The Pereiras say they’re still owed between $24,000 and $27,000 for rent, as well as over a thousand dollars in phone bills that the Schaefers never paid.
The Schaefers kept claiming that they had money coming, the Pereiras said, but it never came.
And since the incidents occurred in 2000, the statute of limitations ran out, and that money is gone.
“I know it’s lost,” Pereira said. “We have to go to God to help us.”
“He kept telling me. ‘Oh, you’re going to be so rich,’” the 78-year-old continued. “They promised so much money, they got us sucked in.”
“Everybody needs money. We need more than ever. But I want that son of a gun in jail with his wife, for ten years. That’s what I call justice.”
Another resident who lost his home, his land, and continues to suffer bad credit after listening to his pastor will be in court in September to see the same. He asked not to be identified.
“This has got to be stopped,” he said. “We’re still suffering now.”
“I want them to be handcuffed and shackled for at least five years,” the resident said. “Instead of taking my (restitution), I would like to see them in jail.”
While each misdemeanor charge carries a possibility of one year in jail, Iseri-Carvalho said that part of the plea agreement is not to ask for consecutive sentences.
The amount of jail time the prosecutor’s office asks for depends on the amount of restitution the two agree to pay, said Iseri-Carvalho.
“I’m trying to get as much money as I can get back,” she said. “More than several (of the victims) weren’t even delinquent. They lost their homes because they listened to them.”
Since many of them still have financial trouble as well as health problems, money to pay the bills will help, Iseri-Carvalho said.
“I think that a lot of these people would like to get some of their money back,” she added.
Tom Finnegan, Staff Writer, can be reached at 245-3681, Ext. 252, or mailto:tfinnegan@pulitzer.net.
