PHOENIX (AP) - The former chief executive of metro Phoenix’s mass transit system was sentenced Tuesday to two years of unsupervised probation and fined $6,000 for falsely claiming personal expenses as business costs.
Stephen Robert Banta, 60, had previously pleaded guilty to the felony fraud charge after state auditors released a report saying he claimed that $32,000 in personal travel, meal and alcohol costs for him and his wife were expenses related to his work. His plea deal called for a sentence of probation.
Banta’s attorney, Frederick Petti, said his client acknowledged improperly claiming $3,285 in personal meals as business expenses. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors agreed not to file additional charges against Banta arising out of the findings from the auditor’s report.
Prosecutor Joseph Waters said the Phoenix-area mass transit agencies that Banta once led have been paid $125,000 by Banta in a compensation settlement reached after his resignation. Still, the prosecutor requested a $6,000 fine.
Banta said the criminal case has damaged his reputation after a long career in mass transit and apologized for his actions. “These were mistakes. These were not intentional acts,” Banta told the judge.
Superior Court Judge Warren Granville said Banta, unlike most other criminal defendants, has already undergone a form of punishment because of the negative publicity his case garnered.
Granville said people can be sloppy with their own finances, but those running public agencies need to keep tight control of public money. “You fell down in that task,” Granville said.
Banta served as Valley Metro’s chief executive from early 2010 until late 2015. He resigned after The Arizona Republic reported that he incurred thousands of dollars of questionable expenses.
A report by the auditor general’s office said Banta was paid $22,000 by Valley Metro Rail to cover expenses from 48 trips that he and his wife made to Portland, Oregon, over a two-year period ending in July 2012. Three-fourths of the $22,000 went to flights and ground-transportation costs on 16 trips taken by Banta’s wife.
Auditors said although Banta had already moved to Phoenix, he had claimed the expenses were related to his relocation from Portland to Arizona.
The travel in question occurred during the college graduation of Banta’s son and during birthdays for Banta and his son.
Banta also used a work credit card or filed false expense reports to cover $10,000 in meal expenses for him and his wife, according to the report. The auditors said Banta claimed that transit officials attended 31 of the 41 meals, but the officials in question say they weren’t present.
The auditor’s report said two transit officials said Banta asked them to lie to reporters about their attendance, another two hadn’t dined with him in years and another said he had never met Banta. Banta claimed the 10 remaining meals were for business purposes, but the transit officials at those events considered the meals to be social events.
He also caused Valley Metro, which has a policy of not paying for the expenses for an employee’s spouse or family member, to unknowingly pay for his wife’s expense at eight of the meals because he didn’t list her as sharing those meals, according to the report.
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Follow Jacques Billeaud at twitter.com/jacquesbilleaud.
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