A Honolulu businesswoman who shut down her home health care service a year ago, owing millions of dollars in federal and state taxes, has opened a new business doing beach weddings in Waimanalo.
Carolyn de Harne, who also goes by Carolyn Frutoz-de Harne, registered her new business, Oahu Beach Wedding Packages, with the state in November.
Her previous company, Hawaii Healthcare Professionals Inc. — also known as Hawaii Professional HomeCare Services Inc. — owes more than $5 million in federal and state taxes and hundreds of thousands in rent and payments to an equipment vendor, according to claims filed with the state Bureau of Conveyances.
Former employees have also filed 15 complaints against Hawaii Healthcare with the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations seeking $39,700 in back wages.
On July 19 the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said a federal judge had ordered Hawaii Healthcare to pay $193,236 to resolve an age discrimination lawsuit.
Federal officials said they were having a difficult time tracking down de Harne, a veteran Hawaii small-business owner who has received numerous awards for service in her field. EEOC said Hawaii Healthcare Professionals was shut down in June 2011.
"She (de Harne) has been very difficult to locate," said Christine Park-Gonzalez, EEOC program analyst, on July 19. "This (discrimination lawsuit) is going to follow her around, so if she does try to open a new business, she’s going to be liable. We’re going to make every attempt to collect on this. It is going to be a challenge."
The state closed the cases involving former employees seeking back wages last year because the state wasn’t able to find de Harne, said labor department spokesman Bill Kunstman.
"We couldn’t get in contact with her," Kunstman said. "We won’t speculate on whether she was dodging or just disappeared."
A Star-Advertiser search of business registrations showed de Harne registered Oahu Beach Wedding Packages as a wedding photography business with a Honolulu post office box as a mailing address.
Several phone calls Tuesday to de Harne seeking comment were not returned.
De Harne has a Facebook page on which she refers to "our company called Oahu Beach Wedding Package." Former employees of Hawaiian Healthcare confirmed the photos on the Facebook page are of de Harne.
Mindy Murray, who worked for Hawaii Healthcare Professionals as an occupational therapist along with her mother, Arlene Baker, from 2008 to 2010, said she and her mother are owed more than $10,000 by the defunct company. The two, who worked as contractors for the company from 2000 to 2008, were among the 15 former workers who filed complaints with the state.
"Medicare was garnishing our reimbursements for the work we did because the company did not pay taxes. It was so mean because it was right at Christmas and we have families," Murray said.
Other former employees describe de Harne as a lavish spender who lived an extravagant lifestyle with disregard for workers who were struggling to make ends meet.
"She spent it all on her elaborate lifestyle. She traveled. She was always on vacation," said Kaimi Kaupiko, Hawaiian Healthcare’s former bookkeeper. "She was always dressed to impress. She always had finer things, nice cars. She was so prideful. She couldn’t claim bankruptcy because she felt it wasn’t her fault. Employees would scream and yell in the office, and I would have to calm them down."
Kaupiko, who left the company in January 2011 after a year, said he received the bulk of his back wages — about $1,700 — but is still owed about a week’s pay.
"A lot of people never got paid," Kaupiko said. "She still claims she doesn’t owe the state anything. The state couldn’t find her to serve her. Every time they sent the sheriff out, she was dodging the sheriff."
Several former employees said the U.S. Department of Labor’s California office contacted them in last month as part of an investigation of unpaid 401(k) contributions by Hawaii Healthcare Professionals.
Karen March, a former program manager for the defunct business from February 2008 to February 2010, said the company’s financial problems began with overspending.
"I think honestly that she just kept overspending," March said. "When the times and economy changed, she didn’t change her personal lifestyle. So when she started having tax problems, she never addressed them. When the envelopes (from the Internal Revenue Service) would come in, she’d just rip them up and throw them away."
De Harne established Hawaii Healthcare Professionals in 1995. The business had as many as 105 employees at the beginning of 2010. By the end of that year, it had lost nearly half its employees. De Harne told the Star-Advertiser last year that the job reduction was due to problems with Medicare and other insurance reimbursements. De Harne also said her taxes were paid in full and that all but two employees had been compensated.
She said her financial troubles stemmed in part from employees who had incorrectly processed reimbursement claims, forcing her to deplete her reserves to pay workers when private insurance and Medicare reimbursements were delayed. De Harne said last year that she voluntarily relinquished her salary, which had been up to $108,000 annually for about five years.
