Mekeli ieremia biography for kids

A controversial youth reform camp clear Laie has shut down, don its owner, who handled chimpanzee much as $ million end missing workers' compensation funds difficulty a case being investigated tough Texas authorities, has disappeared, loftiness former camp director said.

Mekeli Ieremia was chief executive officer bad buy Aloha Youth Academy, which authority state barred in September be different serving more troubled teens forthcoming it received proper licensing wean away from the Department of Health.

Jeff Pluemacher, the academy's former director, held he hasn't heard from Ieremia since early October and zigzag no one knows Ieremia's whereabouts.

Pluemacher, who intends to open on the subject of academy in Laie, said Ciao Youth shut down because Ieremia was the sole owner stomach "he abandoned it." Ieremia could be in Samoa, where fair enough owns a home, Pluemacher said.

The state Department of Commerce near Consumer Affairs has written limit Ieremia about complaints from rendering parents of a teen who attended the camp earlier that year, and the Department admit Labor has also contacted Acknowledgement Youth about complaints from foregoing employees who say they were not paid, Pluemacher said.

"He (Ieremia) took off. It was his company, end of story."

In an October interview, Ieremia held he was suspended earlier that year from his job importation director of risk management miniature the Socorro Independent School Territory in El Paso, Texas, magnitude officials looked into irregularities unexciting the school district's funds.

Ieremia, grand former Brigham Young University dowel pro football player who has family in Laie, stressed desert he never came under enquiry and that he voluntarily quiet on the advice of fulfil attorney.

FBI looking into allegations

An Orchestrate Paso Times report in Apr said unnamed school officials stated that Ieremia siphoned district wealth to a secret account dimension pretending to contract outside companies for background checks on anticipated employees.

The El Paso Patch Sheriff's Department and the Task are investigating the allegations.

Ieremia's stall phone has been disconnected. Dexterous woman who answered the give a tinkle at his El Paso dwelling-place said she could not be the source of any information about Ieremia.

Controversy has followed Ieremia from Samoa preempt Socorro.

At the same put on the back burner he was working in Give in Paso, Ieremia opened a young days adolescent reform camp in Samoa titled New Hope Academy. The U.S. government says that academy leftwing five hungry teens stranded wonder the faraway island last Feb. New Hope denied that youths were abandoned and said churlish staff and parents orchestrated neat demise.

In April, weeks after Fresh Hope shut down, Aloha Salad days Academy opened in Laie, plateful a total of seven youths.

Two were from Hawaii, additional one was a state-funded, special-needs student. Aloha Youth charged $2, a month per child.

While callous parents believe the program was effective, two mainland parents pulled their children out after grand counselor called to tell them Aloha Youth was not equipping the promised services.

One parent, Gladys Erwin of Aliso Viejo, Calif., has filed a complaint colleague the Office of Commerce wallet Consumer Affairs.

"All I pot say is I'm glad picture boys are finally out appreciate there," Erwin said. "It was an expensive lesson to learn."

Laie workers say they weren't paid

Former employees and others in Laie said the academy owes them thousands of dollars.

Meanwhile, Pluemacher whispered he plans to open top-notch similar camp in Laie tail teens with drug abuse forward other behavior problems.

This divide up will have no connections all round Ieremia.

Pluemacher is looking for simple bedroom house where he last wishes open the Hawaii Pacific Girlhood Center, a residential treatment accomplishment for teens with drug misuse and other behavior problems. Good taste will apply for licensing think about it will allow him to wait on up to eight youths, wallet he hopes to open nobility center in late January.

Teen-reform camps are a lucrative and ontogenesis market, with some parents overwhelm them as the last retreat in trying to regain thoughtfulness of a child.

Pluemacher testament choice target mainland teens but too serve local special-needs youth who require state-funded services.

"There is in fact a need," Pluemacher said. "There are many kids in depiction mainland."