Haw. Rev. Stat. § 708-873: Defrauding secured creditors.

(1) A person commits the offense of defrauding secured creditors if the person destroys, removes, conceals, encumbers, transfers, or otherwise deals with property subject to a security interest with intent to hinder enforcement of that interest.

(2) Defrauding secured creditors is a misdemeanor. [L 1972, c 9, pt of §1; gen ch 1993]

COMMENTARY ON §708-873

The sections dealing with theft are framed in terms of appropriation of property of another; however, a security interest does not make the secured party an owner and the property, by reason of the security interest alone, is not the property of another.[1] It is necessary, therefore, to provide separate penalties for "debtors or conditional vendees who dispose of property subject to a security interest in ways that may prejudice the secured creditor."[2] The requisite culpability is intent to hinder enforcement of the security interest; innocent potential hindering of such interest, such as the temporary removal of a secured chattel from the County or State, ought not to be made subject to criminal sanctions.[3]

The penalty provided is a misdemeanor, regardless of the amount involved. This differs somewhat from the theft offenses. This difference reflects the fact that generally offenders against a secured interest "are less dangerously deviated from social norms than outright thieves who take property to which they have no claim."[4] Moreover, in those cases where the actor intended, at the time the actor undertook the security obligation, to violate the terms thereof, felony penalties will be available under the theft provisions.[5]