Contractor Sean Anthony gets $50,000 fine, owes nearly $395,000 for bribing officials

A federal judge has fined contractor Sean H. Anthony $50,000 and ordered a money judgment of nearly $395,000 for conspiring to bribe public officials to secure work for his company, court records show.

U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett sentenced Anthony on Tuesday. Starrett placed Anthony on probation for three years and ordered six months of house arrest.

Anthony pleaded guilty in March 2015 to a charge punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The money judgment of $394,720 represents property involved in the bribery and/or money traceable to the bribery, Starrett wrote in an order filed later Tuesday.

Anthony admitted giving things of value to former Utility Authority Director Kamran Pahlavan and former Harrison County Supervisor Kim Savant.

“Sean has cooperated and he continues to cooperate, and those are relevant factors in any sentence that may be meted out,” said his attorney, Joe Sam Owen.

Anthony’s company, S.H. Anthony Inc., had signed a $3.5 million operations and maintenance contract with the Utility Authority. The contract was ended in January 2013 after the Sun Herald reported Anthony had helped Pahlavan buy a car. Pahlavan also was fired.

Pahlavan was accused of accepting two cars, tickets to New Orleans Saints games, hotel rooms and the use of a condo for recommending Anthony’s company for work.

Anthony’s company also had performed some emergency work for the Utility Authority with Pahlavan’s approval.

Pahlavan also was charged; his charges were dismissed after his attorney argued Pahlavan had cooperated with the FBI.

The conspiracy began in July 2007 and continued through February 2013, the charging document said.

Savant is serving a five-year prison term on a guilty plea to conspiracy to accept bribes. Savant admitted he had accepted $1,500 a month from Anthony from January 2011 through January 2013. The bribery amount totaled $37,500, according to court testimony.

Savant had served on the Utility Authority as a representative of the Board of Supervisors. He resigned as a supervisor after seven years in office and just before he answered charges in the federal case.

Savant’s tentative release date from prison is March 4, 2020, according to the Bureau of Prisons website.

Anita Lee, Sun Herald staff writer, contributed to this report.

This story was originally published July 5, 2016 at 2:46 PM with the headline "Contractor Sean Anthony gets $50,000 fine, owes nearly $395,000 for bribing officials."