Stacy Higa, a former Hawaii island public official and executive for Na Leo TV, has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for embezzling from AmeriCorps and offering a bribe in return for grants from the federal CARES Act.

Higa, 58, in October pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to embezzlement and offering a bribe and was sentenced Tuesday to 46 months in prison by Judge Reggie Walton.

After his prison term, Higa, who was a former councilman for Hawaii County and mayoral candidate, will be placed on three years of supervised release. He is also required to pay $38,642 in restitution and an identical amount in a forfeiture money judgment. Finally, Higa will have to perform 200 hours of community service.

AmeriCorps is a federally funded network of services that addresses critical community needs, like improving academic achievement, mentoring the youth, fighting poverty, sustaining national parks and preparing for disasters.

From June 2011 until May 2020, Higa served as an executive director of the Hawaii Commission for National and Community Service, which administers AmeriCorps programs in Hawaii. Since February 2018 he embezzled more than $38,000 in AmeriCorps funds by signing and authorizing contracts and purchase orders between the commission and two companies he owned or controlled without disclosing his control of the companies.

Higa spent the money on personal expenses, which includes $20,000 in elective aesthetic dental care.

“Stacy Higa exploited his position of trust to steal AmeriCorps funds from vulnerable communities and schemed to deny his neighbors money needed for pandemic relief,” said Inspector General Jeffrey of AmeriCorps in a statement. “(The) sentence holds him accountable, reflecting the gravity of his offenses.”

Higa was also found guilty of offering a bribe to influence the approval of application for Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, grants totaling $845,000. In August 2020 he offered a bribe to Hanalei Aipoalani, 43, who was hired to be the Honolulu City and County’s Department of Community Service to administer CARES Act funding.

Higa and Aipoalani had discussed opening limited liability companies on Oahu and using their wives as principals to launder the money. Higa admitted that he expected to profit by more than $250,000 in CARES Act funding, which was passed by Congress to provide financial relief to individuals, businesses and states impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This Defendant abused his position of trust when he robbed AmeriCorps, a critical federal program designed to help the most vulnerable Americans,” said Matthew Graves, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. “His attempt to obtain CARES Act funds through bribery showed a shocking disregard for the critical importance of the program. The Department of Justice will prosecute, to the fullest extent of the law, those individuals who choose to abuse their positions of power to enrich themselves at the cost of the American people.”

Aipoalani had also pleaded guilty to embezzling from AmeriCorps and accepting a bribe under the CARES Act, and was sentenced in June 2021 to 46 months in prison and ordered to pay full restitution to AmeriCorps.