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Ex-county official charged with taking $2M in bribes

Stewart Stant allegedly gifted with money, airfares and more from Milton Choy, businessman tangled up in corruption probe

Then-Environmental Management Director Stewart Stant addresses Maui County Council members alongside then-Deputy Director Michael Miyamoto during a committee meeting in June 2018. Stant is facing charges alleging that he accepted more than $2 million in bribes from Honolulu businessman Milton Choy in exchange for helping steer $19 million in contracts to Choy’s wastewater company, H2O Process Systems. The Maui News file photo

A former Maui County official is facing federal charges alleging he accepted more than $2 million in bribes to direct over $19 million in contracts and purchase orders to a Honolulu wastewater company.

The U.S. Hawaii District Attorney’s Office unveiled the charges Thursday against Stewart Olani Stant, the 55-year-old former head of the Maui County Department of Environmental Management, and Milton Choy, the 60-year-old owner and manager of H2O Process Systems, for a “long running bribery scheme” stretching from October 2012 to December 2018.

Choy allegedly provided Stant with more than $2 million “in financial benefits and gifts,” including direct deposits into Stant’s bank accounts, cash and checks given directly to Stant, gambling chips on mutual trips to Las Vegas that Choy also partly funded, and airfare and hotel rooms.

“In return for the moneys, funds and financial benefits provided to Stant by Choy, Stant improperly directed lucrative wastewater service and equipment contracts to Choy and his company H2O,” according to the indictment against Stant.

Stant could not be immediately reached for comment by cellphone or social media on Thursday afternoon.

Stewart Stant, then the director of the Department of Environmental Management, is pictured in July 2017. Federal prosecutors allege that Stant accepted bribes from 2012 to 2018 that included checks, cash, gambling chips on trips to Vegas, airfare and hotel rooms. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

The Maui High graduate and Air Force veteran joined the county as an electrician apprentice in 1991, moving up the ranks to eventually become the maintenance manager of the Wastewater Reclamation Division, according to an interview with The Maui News in 2015. He spent most of his career there at the Kihei wastewater treatment plant.

In December 2015, then-Mayor Alan Arakawa appointed Stant to serve as director of the Environment Management Department, a role he held until December 2018.

Arakawa could not be immediately reached by cellphone for comment on Thursday afternoon.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office alleges that Stant used his position as wastewater manager and later as department director “to steer and award sole source contracts to H2O.” Between October 2012 and December 2018, Stant helped to direct at least 56 sole source contracts to H2O and Choy worth about $19.3 million, the indictment says.

Typically, the county has to seek bids from contractors when it needs a product or service. Sole source contracts, however, can be issued without a competitive bidding process, usually in situations where only one business can meet the requirements, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

For example, in 2016 the county was seeking to purchase an Aquadisk Diamond Filter System to replace aging sand filters at the Kahului Wastewater Reclamation Facility. The filters were designed by Aqua-Aerobics Systems, and H2O Process Systems was the only authorized representative in Hawaii to sell, train and service the filters, according to the sole source contract request, which was approved at a cost of $3.5 million.

With Choy already conducting business with the county and seeking to do more, Stant allegedly failed to notify anyone in the department or the county about the financial gifts and benefits he was receiving from Choy and did not declare any of those gifts and benefits on his 2016, 2017 and 2018 financial disclosure forms, the indictment states.

Choy allegedly provided dozens of checks, direct deposits and cash to Stant’s bank accounts totaling nearly $1.4 million, with deposits ranging from $1,000 to as high as $59,980, according to the indictment.

Maui County officials and employees must report receiving any gifts or financial benefits in excess of $50.

The federal government has spent years investigating Choy, a longtime businessman and political donor whose arrest and subsequent cooperation with investigators led to bribery charges against two state lawmakers. One of them, Maui state Sen. J. Kalani English, was sentenced to over three years in prison for taking thousands of dollars in bribes to influence legislation on cesspools from Choy, who at the time was identified in court documents as “Person A.”

Choy’s attorney, Michael Green, told the Associated Press that Choy has taken responsibility and admitted everything he did to federal investigators.

“He gave unprotected statements — that’s where you don’t ask for a lawyer and you sit down with the agents and tell them what you did. And he did that. And he was candid the whole time and told them everything he knew about corruption,” Green said.

Both Stant and Choy are set to appear in court on Monday.

If convicted, Stant could face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Choy could face a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ken Sorenson, Micah Smith and Michael Albanese are prosecuting the case, which was investigated by the FBI.

* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.

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