On June 4, three men were convicted in federal court on multiple felony charges for their roles in a complex and long running bribery scheme to defraud Hawaii County’s affordable housing program.

Two of the defendants–Paul Sulla and Gary Charles Zamber–are Hilo-based lawyers, the third a businessman.

A month after the jury verdict, a friend asked a simple question.

How is it that the two are still listed as having active law licenses even after being found guilty of multiple felonies?

Hmmmm. Good question. Here’s what I found.

The three were convicted on all charges, including one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and nine counts of honest services wire fraud, all felonies. Sulla was also convicted of money laundering, another felony. They are all scheduled to be sentenced in early December.

To appreciate what was involved, here’s a summary of the case from Environment Hawaii, a monthly newsletter that has reported on parts of the underlying transactions for years and is credited with sparking the federal investigation that eventually led to the indictments.

In its case…the Department of Justice has argued that between late-2014 and late-2021, the three men were involved in a conspiracy to provide bribes or kickbacks to former Hawai’i County Office of Housing and Community Development employee Alan Rudo in exchange for his help in securing affordable housing agreements, valuable excess affordable housing credits (made even more valuable by building restriction waivers he facilitated), and land in Waikoloa meant for the development of affordable housing.

The DOJ estimated that their schemes netted them nearly $11 million and eventually charged the men with honest-services wire fraud. It also charged Sulla, who created the various “shell” companies involved, with money laundering.

Looking back at court records, it appears both men continued to practice law and appear in court on behalf of clients over the three years between their indictment in 2022 and conviction in 2025.

The whole process of attorney discipline is shrouded in layers of secrecy, ostensibly to protect the public, but which mostly protect the reputations of those attorneys being investigated, as well as ODC itself. See my 2022 post, “Hawaii’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel has long considered itself a secret enclave.”

Court records show that on July 9, five weeks after Sulla and Zamber were convicted, ODC filed petitions asking the Supreme Court to issue an order “immediately restraining” both men from the practice of law, and to consider this a suspension from law practice for purposes of court rules.

That seems like it should have been a simple matter, but more two weeks have passed and the court has taken no action.

ODC also asked the court to refer the matter back to the Disciplinary Board to “institute formal disciplinary proceedings that will determine the appropriate discipline to be imposed, with formal hearing stayed until such time as the conviction is final.”

And just when is a conviction final? As we learned after the death of Mike Miske, a conviction isn’t final until the defendants have been sentenced and any appeals have been exhausted, or the deadline for filing appeals has passed. Even if the Supreme Court had actually taken “immediate” action, it could still be many months before the ODC’s confidential formal proceedings would begin. Or longer, if the defendants appeal.

This despite the fact ODC has the benefit of a running start. The office opened disciplinary cases against both attorneys when the federal charges were filed in 2022. These cases, which track the federal allegations, were and remain confidential. Their existence was made public only after ODC received subpoenas from federal prosecutors to produce any records of the disciplinary cases involving Sulla and Zamber, along with any statements made responsive to ODC’s actions, requiring ODC to ask the Supreme Court for a partial waiver of case confidentiality so that it could respond to the federal subpoenas.

More information about the status of the disciplinary cases opened in 2022 is unlikely to become public unless and until the pair are sentenced, run out any appeals, and the ODC formalities lead to a recommendation that will go back to the Hawaii Supreme Court for its decision.

Disbarring both men as convicted felons seems like it should be a slam dunk. But procedurally, even that isn’t simple or transparent.