Ex-Maui official pleads guilty in latest Hawaii bribery case

By AUDREY McAVOY
Associated Press

HONOLULU (AP) — A former Maui County official who allegedly accepted $2 million in bribes from a Honolulu businessman in exchange for more than $19 million in wastewater contracts pleaded guilty Monday in one of the largest bribery cases ever prosecuted in Hawaii. Stewart Olani Stant, who was formerly a wastewater manager and the director of Maui’s Department of Environmental Management, pleaded guilty to one count of honest services wire fraud in U.S. District Court in Honolulu. Stant is the latest public servant to admit to taking bribes from Milton Choy, the the owner and manager of the wastewater company H2O Process Systems LLC. Choy was scheduled to be arraigned later Monday.