The long-delayed prison sentence of former Hawai'i union leader Gary Rodrigues must begin Jan. 7, U.S. District Judge David Ezra has ruled.

Rodrigues, 65, retired as head of the 15,000-member United Public Workers union in 2002 after he was convicted of more than 100 counts of criminal conduct including fraud, embezzlement, conspiracy, money laundering and acceptance of kickbacks.

Ezra sentenced Rodrigues in 2003 to 60 months in prison and ordered him to pay fines and restitution of some $450,000. His daughter and co-defendant, Robin Rodrigues Sabatini, was sentenced to 46 months behind bars.

But the sentences were delayed by a series of legal appeals.

In his latest ruling, issued Oct. 31, Ezra turned aside arguments from Rodrigues' law-yers to reduce his prison sentence to 33 months.

The evidence supporting the 60-month sentence "was overwhelming and sufficient to find beyond a reasonable doubt that (Rodrigues) engaged in abusing a position of trust, obstructed justice and laundered ... money," Ezra ruled.

In opposing a lower sentence, the government argued to Ezra that Rodrigues' criminal conduct occurred "over a long period of time," was "carefully crafted to avoid getting caught" and "lined the pockets" of Rodrigues and his daughter with hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Rodrigues began his tenure as state director of the UPW in 1981 "with good intentions, having the best interests of the union and its members as his priority" and helped build the union into "a large, politically significant" organization, the government sentencing motion said.

"Over the years, he became greedy, autocratic, vindictive and tyrannical" and "clearly abused a position of trust," prosecutors said.