- Larry Ellison got a speeding ticket last year while driving on his Hawaiian island, Lanai.
- He told the officer that he was on his way to dinner with his kids but that "there's no excuse."
The billionaire Larry Ellison was caught last year running a stop sign and speeding on the Hawaiian island of Lanai, of which he owns nearly 98%.
The Oracle cofounder was stopped while driving his orange Corvette last October, Hawaii News Now reported this week, citing police body-camera footage. The officer told Ellison that he was pulled over for running through a stop sign and that he was "kind of speeding."
Ellison apologized and told the officer he was trying to get home to have dinner with his kids.
"But there's no excuse," Ellison said. "There's no good excuse."
The officer asked for his license, registration, and insurance, and Ellison told the officer he didn't have his license, Hawaii News Now reported.
The billionaire's company on the island, Pulama Lanai, declined to comment for the story. Oracle representatives did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on the traffic incident.
Ellison bought nearly 98% of the 141-square-mile island in June 2012 for an estimated $300 million. Ellison, who Forbes estimates is worth about $110 billion, said he wanted to turn the island into a tourist destination and "the first economically viable, 100% green community."
In 2018, he launched a wellness company on the island said to be focused on using data to help people lead healthier and longer lives.
Gabe Johnson, a Maui County councilman who represents and lives on Lanai, told Hawaii News Now that confronting Ellison is hard and that the officer who pulled him over did a "nice job."
"Some communities, as we all know, have let the elite just, you know, run wild," Johnson said.
Johnson has criticized some of Ellison's behaviors and projects on the island.
Hawaii News Now reported that weeks before Ellison was pulled over, residents accused his company of blocking public access to Hulopoe Beach Park, near Ellison's Four Seasons resort. Johnson told the outlet that the beach is used by Native Hawaiians for cultural practices, adding that residents of the island "still have rights."
This story has been updated to include that Pulama Lanai declined to comment.