Forefeiture: Six acres of Kona land acquired by disgraced former Hawaiʻi County housing staffer Alan Rudo and his three associates through the use of affordable housing credits acquired by deceit are now being offered for sale. The asking price is $1.139 million.
The property – two lots along Kealakaʻa Street in the Kealakehe Homesteads area – is being sold subject to a 55-year lease to Honuaʻula LLC, which calls for payment of $7,000 a month lease rent, an affordable housing agreement signed by the former landowner, West View Development, and the County of Hawaiʻi in 2015, and a development agreement between Honuaʻula and the county in 2021.
Sale of the land by the U.S. Marshals Service was approved by U.S. District Judge Jill A. Otake, who adopted the recommendations of U.S. Magistrate Judge Rom A. Trader.
The three business associates of Rudo who were involved in the acquisition of the land have entered not guilty pleas to the federal charges against them. They have not yet been tried.
After payment of expenses associated with the sale, the proceeds will be held by the Justice Department’s Seized Asset Deposit Fund. Should the business associates – Paul Sulla Jr., Gary Zamber, and Rajesh Budhabhatti – be acquitted, the proceeds can be returned to them.
A trial date of September 16 has been scheduled.
Foreclosure: Deutsche Bank National Trust, which holds a mortgage to the Sunset Beach lot owned by James and Denise O’Shea, is seeking to foreclose on the property to recover more than $1 million dollars it says it’s owed.
In December 2022, a Stipulated Judgment and Order was filed in a 1st Circuit Court case involving the state’s enforcement efforts regarding an illegal seawall the O’Sheas had built on state land in the Conservation District to protect their property.
The order requires that by the end of this year, the O’Sheas, or whoever owns the land at the time, remove the unauthorized seawall at their own expense. The O’Sheas would be required to pay the state $52,500 in fines by January 1, 2025 or a further date approved by the Board of Land and Natural Resources “or in the event of a material default,” the order states.
Both the state and the bank agree that the fine, which constitutes a lien on the property, is junior to the bank’s mortgage.
The O’Sheas have been trying to sell the property for nearly two years. Although it has a tax-assessed value of more than $2.7 million, it’s listed for sale for only $1.5 million.
Correction: An item on the ongoing East Maui water lawsuits in our issue last month erroneously stated that recent filings by parties to the cases were all part of one case. The corrected version is available on our website, environment-hawaii.org, and reflects the fact that the recent appeals dealt with two separate cases. We sincerely apologize for the errors.
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