Kekaha man gets 14 months for stealing $1.4 million in COVID aid

Kauaʻi’s pandemic aid was supposed to keep restaurants and their workers afloat, covering payroll, rent, utilities and other operating costs at food-service businesses that were hammered by COVID-19 restrictions. Instead, federal prosecutors say $1.4 million meant for that purpose was siphoned away by a Kekaha man and funneled into a personal investment account.

Ethan Page, 52, of Kekaha, was sentenced April 15 to 14 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $1,409,964.35 in restitution to the Small Business Administration. The case centered on the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, a $28.6 billion relief program created by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to help the hardest-hit small restaurants.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawaiʻi, Page, through Hanapepe Design Studio, LLC, submitted an RRF application on or about May 16, 2021. The SBA approved it and deposited just over $1.4 million into the business account. Prosecutors said Page then transferred $1.3 million into his own personal investment account at another financial institution and spent the remaining $100,000 on expenses that were not allowed under the program.

The government said Page later certified, on or about December 22, 2021, that the money had been used for legitimate business costs. Prosecutors said that if he had reported the spending accurately, the SBA would have required repayment. The FBI investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Craig S. Nolan and Gregg Paris Yates prosecuted it.

The restitution order gives the government a formal path to recover the loss, but the case also shows how quickly disaster aid can disappear once it leaves a business account. Federal officials said in April 2024 that the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force had already charged more than 3,500 defendants and seized or forfeited more than $1.4 billion in stolen pandemic relief funds, underscoring that enforcement remains active years after the money went out.

The SBA received 278,300 Restaurant Revitalization Fund applications requesting $72.2 billion, approved about 101,000 of them, and disbursed all $28.6 billion. For Kauaʻi, where independent restaurants remain central employers in places like Hanapepe, Kekaha and Kapaʻa, the case is a reminder that every diverted dollar was a dollar that never reached a struggling kitchen, server or supplier.