Maui Prosecutor to Hire Investigator Focused On Post-Wildfire Contractor Fraud

This story was originally published by Civil Beat.

The Maui Department of the Prosecuting Attorney is expected to soon have an investigator working full-time on contractor fraud cases targeting survivors of the deadly 2023 Lahaina wildfire, county officials say.

Mayor Richard Bissen asked Maui County Council Chair Alice Lee to introduce legislation to authorize the new hire after the department experienced a rise in the number of reports related to post-disaster contractor fraud. Last week, the council unanimously voted to advance the bill, with final passage expected on Nov. 13.

“This was an underreported crime at one time, where people may have felt embarrassed or didn’t know who to go to, or didn’t want to say what happened to them,” Bissen told Civil Beat Wednesday. “But I think since more people have come forward, others feel comfortable coming forward, especially if it’s the same individual whose name is brought up.”

The mayor’s request came in the weeks after Civil Beat and Inside Climate News co-published a joint investigation revealing that even though dozens of wildfire survivors have reported serious problems with the contractors they hired to rebuild their homes, government officials had not announced any actions against contractors for post-wildfire misconduct.

Contractors stopped showing up, were unable to account for large sums of money paid to them or performed work so poorly it had to be redone. Civil Beat and Inside Climate News reviewed hundreds of pages of public and private records, including police reports, court filings, contracts and text messages exchanged between contractors and property owners. Many community members said they believe contractor fraud and misconduct in the Lahaina burn zone is a far bigger problem than documented in official reports.

Maui prosecutor Andrew Martin told Civil Beat that he believed the story was among the factors that helped people feel more comfortable speaking to officials about their negative experiences with contractors.

“I think it’s all helpful,” he said, adding that the increase in reports also followed a Lahaina community meeting during which he and other county officials gave a presentation on post-disaster contractor fraud. “There is this segment of the population that, for a variety of different reasons, are not comfortable coming forward, and the more we get it out there, I think it puts people in a position to say, ‘OK, someone out there is going to listen.’”

The investigative services division of the prosecutor’s office currently employs six investigators. The legislation would amend the Fiscal Year 2027 budget to let the department hire a seventh. This would allow Martin to assign one of his office’s investigators to work full-time on active contractor fraud investigations, he told council members last week.

“These cases — because of the need to be able to distinguish between whether or not this is a civil complaint or a criminal complaint — are complex and involved,” Martin said at the meeting Friday. “I need to be able to assign an investigator to this full time.”

Martin has said his office had a deputy prosecutor and an investigator dedicating most of their time to reports of contractor fraud targeting wildfire survivors. He said this week that a recently hired deputy prosecutor — a former assistant U.S. attorney with complex white-collar experience — will also be assigned to the project full-time when they begin work on Nov. 6.

“When I talked to my team about what their needs are right now, they indicated they needed another investigator,” Martin told Civil Beat Wednesday. “That’s just where we’re at in terms of the current workload.”

There would be no immediate cost associated with adding the additional salaried staff position, according to an Oct. 15 letter to the council from Maui Budget Director Lesley Milner. Martin said during Friday’s council meeting that the new investigator would be funded through cost savings.

The need for another investigator “arises from the unforeseen scope and complexity of investigating potential contractor fraud related to the 2023 Maui wildfires,” Milner said in the letter. “As the investigations progressed, the department identified significant workload demands involving the review of financial records and contractual documentation, interviews with witnesses and victims, and preparation of cases for potential prosecution.”

The prosecutor’s office began referring tips related to contractor fraud to the Maui Police Department in May 2025, and the prosecutor’s office eventually opened its own investigation in an effort to more quickly move cases forward, according to Martin.

“We’re now moving on to a second one,” he told council members last week. “These investigations are incredibly time-consuming. The number of financial records that we are gathering through search warrants and subpoenas … are voluminous.”

Martin added that the new hire would also be in support of his efforts to improve his office’s ability to investigate other white-collar crimes, including elder abuse — “one of the fastest-growing areas of fraud-related, financial-related crimes in the country,” he said. “We’re going to need to be able to address that in a meaningful way and do it quickly.”

Bissen was glad to see council members unanimously support adding another investigator to Martin’s staff, he said.

“I really do think it’s prioritizing the needs of the folks who are already struggling and going through a difficult time,” Bissen said. “The question for us is: How do we help recoup people’s money? How do we hold people accountable? How do we stop them from doing this to others? Those are all the goals behind this bill, and I’m grateful that the council took it up.”

Council member Tamara Paltin, who represents Lahaina, said she personally knew fire survivors who had lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to the contractors they hired to rebuild their homes after the fire.

“It could happen to anyone,” she said prior to Friday’s vote. “It’s through no fault of their own, because you expect people to honor their word, even if it’s not written down. You expect people to want to help you to recover from this, and there’s just a lot of people out there that have taken advantage of that.”

She added, “I feel especially responsible that one of the contractors gave a presentation in one of our own committees, and then walked away with people’s money without delivering. So I think this is the most appropriate thing for us to do in response to that… In a lot of cases, people have already made off with the money, but I think that shouldn’t stop us from trying to hold them accountable.”

Council member Tom Cook, who represents South Maui, told Martin, “I think you need 10 investigators.”

“I’m hopeful for your success growing in this area, because a lot of our people don’t have a clue, and they’re getting used,” said Cook, a general contractor by trade. “It’ll raise the profession up to a higher level to have your scrutiny and work involved. So thank you.”

The council will take the legislation up for a second and final reading on Nov. 13.