Honolulu Zoning Board of Appeals member Frank James Lyon admitted Tuesday in U.S. District Court that he paid cash bribes to a state agency official to secure a $2.5 million state contract for his company.

Lyon, 53, president of the Honolulu civil engineering company Lyon Associates Inc., pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to bribe an agent of an organization that receives federal money. He faces a maximum five-year prison term and $250,000 fine at sentencing in May.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenneth J. Mansfield is allowing Lyon to remain free until then on a $50,000 unsecured, signature bond. He told Lyon that he can continue to operate his business to complete the company’s existing jobs but is prohibited from seeking new government contracts.

Lyon’s lawyer Lyle Hosoda told Mansfield that Lyon has more than 100 employees.

U.S. Department of Justice lawyer Katherine Raut told Mansfield that the government will not ask the court to require Lyon to pay restitution or to forfeit any property. The Fraud Section of the DOJ’s Criminal Division in Washington, D.C., is prosecuting the case because U.S. Attorney for the District of Hawaii Kenji Price recused his office.

Lyon told Mansfield that between 2006 and 2016 he gave money and other items of value to obtain and retain business for his company.

According to the terms of his plea agreement, Lyon made cash payments of at least $240,000 to an employee of a state agency to secure a $2.5 million contract from the agency. Some of the money was supposed to be shared with other agency officials after they awarded his company the contract in 2012 and paid in installments. The document does not identify the employee, state agency or project.

The plea agreement also says Lyon paid the state agency employee $132,500 for marketing services the employee never provided and $24,000 to a relative of the employee for services that the relative never provided.

Lyon also admitted in the plea agreement that he paid approximately $200,000 in bribes to two unnamed Federated States of Micronesia officials to obtain FSM contracts worth $7.8 million. The bribes included cash, travel expenses, a car, a truck, University of Hawaii tuition and an apartment.