Admitted Ponzi scheme operator James Lull has not fully cooperated with officials trying to locate millions of dollars owed to his victims and has boasted that he has hidden assets away from his creditors, according to documents filed this week in Lull's criminal fraud case.

As recently as Monday, Lull tried to persuade one of his creditors in Washington state not to share information about Lull's finances with federal law enforcement officials, according to documents filed by Ronald Kotoshirodo, the trustee overseeing Lull's Hawai'i bankruptcy case.

Lull allegedly left a phone message Monday for that creditor, Paul Veldhuis, that said, "I have property I have not told the government about. I will pay you."

Veldhuis confirmed yesterday in a telephone interview that he had received that message from Lull, who owes him more than $25,000.

The debt was incurred after Lull, a former Kaua'i mortgage broker, filed bankruptcy here in 2006, but before Lull was charged with federal fraud offenses in 2008.

Lull pleaded guilty late last year and was ordered to cooperate with the FBI and with Kotoshirodo in their attempts to recover some of the $30 million Lull has admitted stealing from his victims, most of whom live and work on Kaua'i.

U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway was scheduled to sentence Lull earlier this month but delayed the hearing to next month, saying she wanted more information about the extent of Lull's cooperation.

Kotoshirodo yesterday filed numerous documents for Mollway's consideration in the upcoming sentencing.

"Lull has not cooperated," Kotoshirodo said in the filing.

Lull's criminal attorney, U.S. Public Defender Peter Wolff, did not respond to a request for comment on Kotoshirodo's statements.

Kotoshirodo said he has "repeatedly sought Lull's cooperation" but has had only limited success.

GEMSTONES, COINS

At one point this year, Kotoshirodo said, Lull said he would return to Hawai'i from the Seattle area to meet with Kotoshirodo but said he had no money and the trustee would have to pay his airfare and $283 per day in per diem expenses allowed to witnesses in federal court cases.

He eventually was subpoenaed to appear and the trustee paid a small amount of travel expenses but not the per diem money, according to court files.

Lull's cooperation with Kotoshirodo has been "marginal at best" and he "continues to hide assets," the trustee said.

At a sworn deposition here in March, Lull admitted that he had failed to disclose transfers of more than $3 million and that the transfers were later discovered by the trustee at considerable expense to Lull's estate, according to Kotoshirodo.

And Lull has told Veldhuis and another creditor in Washington that he has other assets that he has not disclosed to federal authorities, according to sworn declarations filed this week.

Those assets include diamonds and opals, coins, and collectible pool cues, according to the declarations, signed by Veldhuis and Peter Shafer, who invested in real estate deals with Lull.

"Lull told me in 2008 that he had hidden assets because of his bankruptcy," Shafer wrote.

"He said to me words to the effect (of) 'I have things stashed' and 'Because of my bankruptcy, I have to keep things hidden,' " Shafer said.

Shafer claimed that Lull last year showed him a dozen opals that he claimed to have gotten from a friend in Alaska, as well as bags of coins that a friend at a coin shop was keeping for him.

Lull claimed that another friend in North Carolina was going to sell pool cues belonging to Lull on eBay.

'MAKING EXCUSES'

Shafer said by telephone yesterday that he and another man rented a house in the Seattle area with Lull after Lull moved there and began working at a mortgage brokerage.

Lull persuaded Shafer to invest in real estate deals very similar to the ones that landed Lull in criminal court here, according to Shafer and to court records.

Lull repaid some of the money but then began "making excuses" about why he could not repay the rest, Shafer said.

"The excuses got to be very elaborate and completely unbelievable," Shafer said.

"He befriends people and he defrauds people," Shafer said, claiming that Lull owes new creditors in Washington "well over $100,000."

Veldhuis said he met Lull in February 2008 and eventually agreed to loan him $25,500, which has not been repaid.

"I know that he obtained these funds from me under false pretenses and has no intention of repaying me," Veldhuis said in his sworn declaration.

He said he went with Lull to a jewelry store in Bellevue, Wash., where Lull showed him a "large Tanzanite stone said to be worth $65,000 that he sold to them for $5,000."

Veldhuis also provided Hawai'i attorney Michael Lilly, who represents Kotoshirodo, a Dec. 1, 2008, receipt for Lull's $700 sale of two diamonds to another jewelry store in Bellevue.