Milton Choy, a Honolulu wastewater executive, has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for his role in a multi-million dollar bribery scheme involving county and state officials.

Honolulu District Court Chief Judge Derrick Watson today handed Choy the 41-month sentence, which is to be followed by three years of supervised release.

Choy, founder and owner of H2O Process Systems and Fluid Technologies, entered a guilty plea in September after being charged with bribing an agent of a federally funded program.

During the six-year bribery scheme, Choy paid Stewart Olani Stant, former former director of the Maui County Department of Environmental Management, over $2 million. In exchange, Stant guided dozens of contracts, worth about $19.3 million, to Choy’s wastewater company.

Stant also entered a guilty plea in September, and in February was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

Court documents show that Stant spent the money he received from Choy on hostess bars, luxury hotel stays, travel, jewelry and other items.

The maximum penalty for the bribery charge is up to 10 years in prison, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson said Choy was given a reduced sentence because of his “extraordinary cooperation” with prosecutors that led to the arrests and convictions of others as part of the largest public corruption investigations in Hawaii’s history.

Sorenson recommended a 36-month sentence for Choy’s cooperation.

“Mr. Choy did quite a bit of work on behalf of the federal government in the context of our public corruption investigations,” Sorenson said. “The court … recognized all of Choy’s cooperation.”

Choy was also ordered to forfeit $4 million, which represents his profits over the course of the bribery scheme.

From 2014 to 2021, Choy also bribed former state Senate Majority Leader J. Kalani English and former state Rep. Ty Cullen with thousands of dollars in cash and casino chips in exchange for legislation that would benefit his company.

English was sentenced to more than three years in prison, and Cullen was sentenced to two years, both for honest-services wire fraud. They were fined $100,000 and $25,000, respectively.

Wilfredo Savella, who also worked with the county’s Department of Environmental Management, was sentenced to 16 months in prison for corrupt solicitation and acceptance of bribes and was ordered to forfeit about $41,000.

Stant was ordered to pay a $1.9 million judgment forfeiture for his honest services wire fraud conviction.

Choy was given no additional fine or restitution but was given a $100 special assessment fee.