The Mailbox Conspiracy

A Spellbinding Tale of Corruption in Law Enforcement


When Honolulu police chief Louis Kealoha and his wife, Katherine, the city’s deputy prosecutor, reported their mailbox stolen to frame a family member, it was only the beginning of an elaborate conspiracy—and a corruption case that soon became the most notorious in Hawai‘i history. Riveting and meticulously told by the federal defender who learned the story from the inside, The Mailbox Conspiracy is a fascinating study in the corruption of power and the abuse of public office.

Infamous for each new stranger-than-fiction revelation, the so-called “Kealoha mailbox trial” unearthed a chain of bumbling coverups, multiple instances of financial fraud stretching back a decade, and an alleged family drug trafficking enterprise—all served up with a generous helping of arrogance on the part of Louis and Katherine Kealoha.


A tenacious defense attorney with decades of experience, author Alexander Silvert led the team of investigators who painstakingly unearthed evidence to prove Gerard Puana’s innocence. Their seven-year effort turned the tables on the Kealohas, resulting in the couple’s federal prosecution, and the ramifications—and legal wrangling—of the case continue today.


“The Louis and Katherine Kealoha corruption saga is the most infamous in Island history, as Chief Kealoha and the Honolulu Police Department worked in concert to dupe the US Attorney’s office into prosecuting an innocent man. A scary, engrossing story. Alexander Silvert is as skilled an author as he is a lawyer.”  —Ben Cayetano, Governor of Hawai‘i, 1994–2002

“The Mailbox Conspiracy is a crisply narrated study in abuse of power at the highest levels of Hawai‘i law enforcement. Silvert doesn’t hold back in vividly describing this sordid conspiracy by corrupt and recalcitrant authority figures. His description of today’s police departments, prosecutor’s offices and courts, warts and all, is an easy-to-follow must-read for law students and those who love page-turning courtroom drama.”  —Doug Chin, Attorney General of Hawai‘i, 2015–2018


Alexander Silvert was raised in New York City and Vermont. A graduate of UCLA and Boston College Law School, he worked as a state and federal public defender in Philadelphia before moving to Honolulu in 1989. He served as the first assistant federal public defender from 1992 to his retirement in October 2020 and was named Federal Defender of the Year in 2000 by the National Association of Federal Defenders. During his tenure he handled numerous high-publicity cases, including representing two defendants in potential federal death penalty cases. Silvert wrote The Mailbox Conspiracy based on his personal involvement in the Louis and Katherine Kealoha case from 2013 to 2020. He currently provides legal consultation services to defense attorneys in federal criminal cases.