A retired Maui County wastewater worker caught up in a wide-ranging federal public corruption investigation that claimed the careers of his former department head, two state lawmakers and a Honolulu businessman was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison followed by two months of home detention Thursday.

Wilfredo Savella, 71, also will serve three years of supervised release after he finishes his sentence and must forfeit $41,704. Savella asked U.S. District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi whether she would recommend he do his time at either the Federal Correctional Institution in Sheridan, Ore., or Tuscon, Ariz.

Savella entered into a plea agreement Dec. 5 and was sentenced after he pleaded guilty to a single count of corrupt solicitation and acceptance of bribes in connection with the transactions of a local government receiving federal funds after he took cash, checks, casino chips and first-class travel in excess of $40,000.

“Mr. Savella violated the public trust by selling his public service job and the discretion the County of Maui vested in him, for his own personal profit. Mr. Savella’s job was to serve the people of Maui County as a wastewater manager, but instead he betrayed their trust and sold himself and his public employment to the highest bidder, and violated the trust his employer and the people of Maui vested in him by taking multiple bribes over the course of time in return for backstopping sole-source contracts,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson, chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Division, speaking before Savella was sentenced. “He was collateral to the main offense conduct, and in fact did not significantly aid the scheme. What he did do was serve as a backstop in case questions were asked about the sole-source nature of the contracts or the fact that so many contracts were going to H2O Processes.”

Sorenson noted that Savella has “some serious health issues” at 71, and he “enjoys the support of his family as he has stepped up to take responsibility for his actions,” immediately returning to Hawaii from Arizona to talk to Sorenson after he was contacted by investigators.

Savella’s attorney, Victor J. Bakke, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in a statement that his client was facing 30 months of imprisonment under the federal sentencing guidelines. Federal prosecutors had asked for 21 months.

“Under the circumstances, we are satisfied with the imposed sentence of 16 months imprisonment followed by two months of home confinement,” said Bakke.

Savella was the fourth public official charged by federal prosecutors for allegedly taking money from a Honolulu wastewater executive in exchange for awarding sole-source contracts to his company.

Savella was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by Sorenson and Assistant U.S. Attorney Micah Smith for his alleged role in a six-year-long bribery scheme orchestrated by Milton J. Choy, owner and manager of H2O Processes LLC.

From 2013 through 2017, Savella allegedly accepted bribes from Choy for initiating, awarding and/or acting as the Maui County Department of Environmental Management’s primary contact person for sole-source contracts, according to federal court documents.

The bribes were made with cash, bank deposits, a $1,934 first-class plane ticket to Las Vegas, casino chips and other financial benefits totaling more than $40,000.

Savella worked for the Department of Environmental Management for 32 years, the last 10 in the role of maintenance mechanic supervisor, a position he held until his retirement on Nov. 30, 2020. Savella was responsible for determining what wastewater treatment equipment needed to be fixed and who got the contracts to fix it.

Choy, 59, pleaded guilty Sept. 19 to bribing another Maui County official, Stewart Olani Stant, 55, who was Savella’s supervisor and DEM director.

Stant also pleaded guilty Sept. 19 and was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Feb. 8 and ordered to pay a $1.9 million money judgment forfeiture for honest- services wire fraud consisting of acceptance of multiple bribes in the form of cash, bank deposits and gambling trips to Las Vegas in exchange for steering lucrative sole-source contracts to Choy from DEM.

Choy will be sentenced in the Maui wastewater contracts case at 9 a.m. May 17.

FBI agents documented four instances between June 2015 and August 2017 when Choy allegedly wrote checks to Savella that Savella deposited into his American Savings Bank account. The checks ranged from $1,000 to $25,070. Choy deposited an additional $5,000 directly into Savella’s account, according to the information.

Between July 2014 and December 2017, DEM awarded 52 sole-source contracts to Choy’s company totaling more than $19 million. Savella was listed as the primary point of contact for 35 of the contracts.

After Choy was targeted in the Maui probe, he became the government informant who helped the FBI set up a sting operation that led to the arrest of two former state lawmakers, both of whom pleaded guilty to taking money.

The revelation that he was at the heart of the federal sting operation that ended the political careers of former Senate Majority Leader J. Kalani English and the former vice chair of the House Committee on Finance, Rep. Ty J.K. Cullen, prompted some lawmakers to seek professional legal advice.

Once Choy was arrested for his role in the Maui case, he helped the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office by offering bribes to English, 55, of Maui, and Cullen, 42, who represented Central Oahu.

Federal court documents detail how the two former lawmakers introduced, managed and killed legislation at Choy’s request in exchange for Las Vegas casino chips, cash, hotel rooms and dinners for family members.

Choy was not charged with bribing Cullen and English, both of whom pleaded guilty to taking bribes.

English was sentenced in July to 40 months in federal prison for accepting $18,305 in cash from Choy in exchange for inside information on the Legislature and managing legislation to benefit H2O Process Systems between 2014 and 2021. He was fined $100,000 after pleading guilty to the same single count as Cullen: honest-­services wire fraud for helping Choy.

Cullen received two years in federal prison and paid $23,000 in restitution before he was sentenced and fined $25,000.