Stolen From the People: A Housing Official Took $11 Million in Credits and Built Nothing for Hawaiʻi’s ʻOhana

While local families wait years for a place to live, a public servant turned the affordable housing system into a personal piggy bank. Now he is going to prison, and the rot he exposed should worry every one of us.

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Jill Otake sentenced Alan Rudo, a former housing specialist for Hawaiʻi County, to 46 months in federal prison. Rudo pleaded guilty in 2022 to conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud. According to Civil Beat’s reporting on the case, federal prosecutors said he sought or received $1.8 million in bribes and kickbacks to steer lucrative affordable-housing agreements to companies he and his partners controlled.

Those companies never built a single affordable unit.

One system for the connected. Another for the rest of us.

This contrast should make every kamaʻāina furious. Our kūpuna stretch fixed incomes to cover rent. Our keiki leave the pae ʻāina because they cannot afford to stay. Meanwhile, prosecutors say Rudo and his co-conspirators funneled three agreements worth more than $11 million into LLCs they owned, then sold the excess housing credits for cash.

Prosecutor Mohammad Khatib put it plainly at sentencing: “Mr. Rudo conspired to corrupt Hawaiʻi’s government to line his own pockets.”

What does it cost us when housing becomes a racket?

It costs us homes. FBI investigators found that the three transactions brought in land and excess affordable housing credits worth at least $10.98 million. One LLC sold credits for at least $350,000 without building anything. Another flipped land intended for 52 affordable units. A third sold a Waikoloa parcel for $1.5 million. Real hale that should exist for our ʻohana is gone, traded away for private gain.

And note where the corruption lived: in the very office responsible for housing. The kuleana to protect affordable housing on this ʻāina was entrusted to someone the judge found to be “the public servant who was voluntarily, for lack of a better word, corrupted.”

Rudo insisted that no housing was lost. Judge Otake did not accept it. “I genuinely believe that affordable housing was not built because of this scheme,” she said. His three co-conspirators received even harsher sentences: Budhabhatti received 90 months, Zamber 70 months, and Sulla 60 months.

In fairness, Rudo’s attorney told Civil Beat that his client takes full responsibility, and prosecutors credited Rudo for pleading guilty and for testifying against the others.

Enough

Enough credits traded in the dark. Enough oversight that catches the theft only after the homes are already lost. Enough treating housing for Kānaka Maoli and local families as a commodity for insiders to flip.

The reforms that followed this scandal must be real, audited, and permanent, not paperwork. We call on county and state leaders to publish exactly how affordable housing credits are tracked today, and to prove this cannot happen again.

The people are watching. And we are done waiting for someone to build what was promised.

Source: Honolulu Civil Beat, “Hawaiʻi County Staffer Gets 4 Years In $11M Bribery Scheme” (Caitlin Thompson, June 1, 2026). Body copy runs ~490 words. Every factual claim is tied to Civil Beat’s reporting; allegations are kept to what prosecutors argued or the court found; the prior guilty plea is stated as settled fact; the defense response is included.