Rep. David Alcos was accused of failing to disclose millions of dollars in debts to various creditors including the IRS and the state Tax Department.

The State Ethics Commission has agreed to settle a complaint against State Rep. David Alcos over allegations that he failed to disclose an array of debts on disclosures that candidates and lawmakers are required to file.

Those debts include more than $3.2 million in federal and state tax liens filed against Alcos in an attempt to collect taxes owed by Alcos’ company D.A. Builders LLC, according to the resolution of charge report by the ethics commission.

Alcos said the debts, including the tax liens, grew out of a dispute over millions of dollars that were owed but never paid to his company D.A. Builders for work it did as a subcontractor in 2015 and 2016 on the International Marketplace project.

His company closed in 2016 after it was “thrown off the job” at International Marketplace, he said in an interview.

District 41 Rep. David Alcos, III, speaks at the Ewa Makai Middle School tree-planting ceremony Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023, in Ewa Beach. The Trees for School Initiative tree planting event helps the farm to school initiatives in Hawaii. Alcos, a 1987 Campbell High School graduate, remembers this school and neighborhood being sugar cane fields. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2023)
State Rep. David Alcos was elected in 2022 to represent District 41, which covers a portion of Ewa Beach, Ocean Pointe and Barbers Point. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2023)

The lawmaker said he believed he only needed to list his personal debts on the ethics disclosures, and not the disputed claims against his company.

He said he should have consulted with his lawyers about the required ethics filings. “I didn’t understand it, so I filled out the forms to the best of my ability, and I face this now,” he said.

All of the flawed filings were made years after his company closed, Alcos said.

Alcos, a Republican, was elected to the House in 2022. The Ethics Commission settlement involves candidate financial disclosure statements from 2020 and 2022, and his financial disclosure statement as a lawmaker from 2023.

The ethics commission Resolution of Charge document dated Wednesday said Alcos was required to disclose each of his creditors who were owed $3,000 or more.

But Alcos failed to include in those filings court judgments against D.A. Builders totaling nearly $112,933 by Pacific Gypsum Supply Inc., Allied Building Productions Corp., Bank of Hawaii and A&B Properties Hawaii LLC, according to the ethics commission.

Also not listed in the 2022 and 2023 filings were an unspecified sum that D.A. Builders owed to the law firm Cades Schutte LLP for legal work done for the company and an unspecified amount owed to World Business Lenders in connection with a $400,000 line of credit it extended to Alcos’ company.

A $1.176 million state tax lien against D.A. Builders for unpaid withholding taxes and general excise taxes, and two liens filed by the Internal Revenue Service in 2017 for unpaid federal taxes totaling more than $2 million also were not listed, according to the ethics commission.

“Although Respondent Alcos disputes some of the above debts, he admits that, to comply with the Financial Disclosure law and promote public transparency, he should have disclosed the above information on the applicable financial disclosure statements filed in 2020, 2022, and 2023,” according to the commission. He agreed to pay $12,500 to settle the matter, it said.

Alcos said he sued another subcontractor who owed him money for work his company did at International Marketplace in 2015 and 2016, and won a judgment of $13 million in the case. But the company he sued then filed for bankruptcy, leaving D.A. Builders owing money to its suppliers and others.

He said the matter is still in court, and he is trying to recover money from the developer of the International Marketplace project.

The Ethics Commission also said it was also “referring this matter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives for disciplinary action as appropriate.” House Speaker Scott Saiki did not respond to a request for comment on the matter Thursday.

Alcos said he “attributes a significant portion of these challenges to the detrimental actions of mainland contractors who have exploited and harmed local business owners,” according to a written statement.

“The impact of these unscrupulous practices has had far-reaching consequences, resulting in financial hardship and the closure of his company, D.A. Builders LLC,” he added.

Read the resolution of charge document below:

Support Independent, Unbiased News

Civil Beat is a nonprofit, reader-supported newsroom based in 贬补飞补颈驶颈. When you give, your donation is combined with gifts from thousands of your fellow readers, and together you help power the strongest team of investigative journalists in the state.

 

About the Author