In the latest example of how government bureaucracy turns every welfare program into a fraud opportunity, a Hawaii housing official received almost four years in prison for using government contracts to obtain bribes.
Calling government housing “affordable” is Marxist double-speak because it requires vast amounts of taxpayer money for much fewer results than private companies achieve without stealing others’ money. In this Hawaii case, not only was there bribery involved in assigning the contracts, but the contractors then never built a single unit of housing, so it was an utter waste of taxpayer money from every possible perspective.
Alan Scott Rudo, who now lives in Cathedral City, California, was in a conspiracy to use his job as housing specialist at the Hawaii County Office of Housing and Community Development (OHCD) for corrupt deal brokering. The “affordable housing” agreements were worth $11 million, and multiple contractors were so eager to secure them that they were willing to arrange a bribe scheme with Rudo.
The Department of Justice press release on May 29 detailed the case:
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Paul Joseph Sulla, 79, of Hilo, Hawaii, and Gary Charles Zamber, 56, of Keaau, Hawaii, both attorneys living on the Big Island, and Rajesh Pankaj Budhabhatti, 65, now of Morro Bay, California, a private businessman on the Big Island, conspired to pay bribes and kickbacks to Rudo in exchange for Rudo’s agreement to use his official position to ensure the County approved three affordable housing agreements (AHAs) benefitting the defendants’ development companies, Luna Loa Developments LLC, West View Developments LLC and Plumeria at Waikoloa LLC. Although Rudo’s co-conspirators promised in the AHAs to build affordable housing for the citizens of Hawaii County, their development companies never built a single unit. Through the AHAs, the defendants fraudulently obtained more than $11 million worth of land and excess affordable housing credits (AHCs). From that amount, Sulla, Zamber, and Budhabhatti paid or attempted to pay Rudo approximately $1,931,778 in bribes and kickbacks.
The question is, what exactly happened to the rest of the money?
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DOJ did not answer that question, but it did state that Rudo’s co-conspirators already received their sentences earlier this year and that they all received longer prison sentences than he did.
The Justice Department’s Criminal Division and the FBI’s Honolulu Office were involved in investigating Rudo’s case.
From the DOJ press release:
Zamber, Budhabhatti, and Sulla were charged with conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and nine counts of honest services wire fraud. Sulla was also charged with money laundering. Rudo, who was charged separately with one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, pleaded guilty and testified at the trial of his co-conspirators. On June 4, 2025, a federal jury in the District of Hawaii convicted Sulla, Zamber, and Budhabhatti on all counts in a superseding indictment.
The amount of fraud committed in America to steal taxpayer dollars is absolutely mind-boggling.
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