There’s a satisfying ring of justice in the settlement of the last federal criminal cases stemming from the corruption of former Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha and his prosecutor wife, Katherine.

Former City Corporation Counsel Donna Leong and former Police Commission Chair Max Sword agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor conspiracy charges over an improper $250,000 retirement payout to Louis Kealoha in 2017 — on top of his yearly $150,000 pension — while he was under federal criminal investigation.

Former Managing Director Roy Amemiya Jr. reached a deferred-prosecution agreement that will ultimately allow dismissal of the misdemeanor charges if he abides by conditions.

All three appointees of former Mayor Kirk Caldwell face supervised release and, more important, restitution in the form of fines of $100,000 each for Leong and Sword and $50,000 for Amemiya — totaling the amount they wrongly gave Kealoha. He was obligated to return the money if convicted of a job-related felony, but hasn’t paid up.

With the plea agreements, scheduled to be formalized March 4 before Senior U.S. District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi, Leong, Sword and Amemiya avoid trial on felony fraud charges that could have resulted in prison time.

The federal investigation of the Kealohas, which brought prison sentences of seven years for Louis and 13 for Katherine on felony fraud and conspiracy convictions involving financial misdeeds and attempts to frame an innocent man, were well underway when the three connived to give Kealoha the retirement buyout instead of firing him for cause.

They reportedly feared lawsuits by the Kealohas, the same reason attributed to Leong for allegedly muzzling former city ethics chief Chuck Totto’s attempts to investigate the Kealohas early in the process.

The retirement deal became legally problematic when Leong, Sword and Amemiya sought to avoid required City Council approval of the $250,000 payout — and likely contentious public hearings — by misleading the Council on where the money was coming from in the police budget.

Interim Police Chief Cary Okimoto wouldn’t go along, saying funds from the police budget were needed for other purposes and that he was uncomfortable deceiving the Council.

The three defendants insisted it was a financial maneuver used before and was OK’d by the finance director. The payment was made over police objections, and the dispute likely cost Okimoto any chance to become permanent chief.

But he recorded the discussions, and his tapes became key to the federal prosecutors’ case.

In one noted transcript, Sword explained to police thusly why it had to be fuzzy where the money was coming from: “The reason it’s very simple. So you don’t have to go to the seven bananas, I mean nine bananas, up at the Council.”

Notwithstanding the separate discussion on the accuracy of his description, bananas or not, they had a legal right and duty to review the payment — and the public had the right to a voice in the process.

Some argued felony charges and jail time were overly stern for the offense; misdemeanors with supervised release and appropriate restitution seem a fair outcome.

Let it be a warning to public officials that playing fast and loose with taxpayers’ money — even if it’s been long-standing practice — can have steep consequences.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.