Kee was hesitant to call the deal a scam, though he said he thought it was "very likely." President Greenwood readily concluded that in her testimony.

Lawmakers then grilled attorney Robert Katz, a partner with the Honolulu law firm Torkildson, Katz, Moore, Hetherington & Harris. UH hired the firm as legal council in preparation for the special senate committee meetings.

Sen. Kim questioned Katz on why so many names were redacted from the university's fact finding report, especially former UH Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw.

"We redacted all the names of people who were not university employees, and because it is still unclear who is and isn't innocent. We made a mistake with former Chancellor Hinshaw in redacting her name because we didn't realize she was still employed as a faculty member," said Katz.

A little more than an hour into the meeting, President M.R.C. Greenwood began her testimony.

"This was a well-intended benefit concert, but it was poorly conceived, and as a result unfortunately for UH it appears all of the money was stolen from us not by us," Greenwood began.

Greenwood stumped lawmakers on several questions, saying she couldn't disclose everything she knew about what happened because a law enforcement investigation is going on and she didn't want to jeopardize the case.

She reviewed the steps that had already been taken by the university, including putting Athletics Director Jim Donovan on paid leave, then shifting him to another position.  Also, reducing the AD's authority, doing an internal audit, and narrowing the job of the Stan Sheriff Center manager.

She also asked lawmakers for "more time" to allow the UH Board of Regents and a task force to investigate what other steps need to be taken to avoid another fiasco.

"We really had the perfect storm here. We were taken advantage of by this situation. We had employees who were under extreme pressure by outside forces to release the money. They made a mistake in pushing to move the money when they did not have things in place that should have been in place and I apologize for that, but that is what happened." said Greenwood.