Lahaina residents who lost homes in the fire are now losing their rebuild money to bad contractors, and almost no one is being punished for it.

• Some homeowners paid contractors hundreds of thousands of dollars — one woman over $600,000 for her childhood home — only to watch the work stop and the calls go unanswered.
• No criminal charges and no revoked licenses have come out of the fraud, even though officials knew to watch for it.
• Police often mark these cases as civil disputes, which leaves victims to sue on their own instead of getting an investigation.
• Victims can also complain to the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, the county prosecutor, the attorney general, or community groups.
• Many never report it at all — immigrants in particular fear not being taken seriously, and three years of grief and rebuilding has left people too worn out to fight.

Outlook: With no enforcement in sight, most of these losses will likely go unrecovered, and the same scams are expected to follow the next disaster.