Former director overseeing Boston Schools' bus fleet indicted on bribery charges

Federal prosecutors say a former director of the company that maintains Boston Public School's bus fleet ran a bribery and kickback scheme spanning more than a decade.

Michael Muller, of Millbury, was arrested Friday and faces multiple charges. He's accused of soliciting and accepting more than $870,000 in bribes and kickbacks from vendors who worked on the buses and in the city’s bus yards, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts. Muller, 59, was former director of fleet and facilities for the bus contractor for the district until he stepped down in December 2021.

The indictment doesn't name the transportation company that employed Muller. Boston Public Schools has relied on Transdev for school bus services since 2013. The district renewed that contract with Transdev for another five years starting 2023.

Boston School officials "became aware" of the allegations in 2022, according to a statement released on Friday.

“The district immediately contacted law enforcement, ensured Muller’s firing, and has fully cooperated with the investigation ever since,” the statement read. “The new bus contract, signed in 2023, requires greater transparency and stronger oversight of payments for maintenance and facilities related work. BPS will continue to fully cooperate with law enforcement to ensure individuals who have betrayed the public trust are held fully accountable.”

Transdev's safety policies and protocols were the subject of an outside investigation earlier this year following the death of a Hyde Park kindergartener in a bus collision in April. The bus driver was driving with an expired school bus driver certification. The review concluded that Transdev's record keeping system was "insufficient" and that both BPS and its bus contractor fell short on auditing and oversight procedures.

Muller has been charged with five counts of soliciting and accepting bribes, five counts of conspiring to commit bribery, five counts of conspiring to commit mail fraud and four counts of extortion.

Muller supervised employees who worked in the bus yards, who cleaned the buses and made repairs. Between 2010 and the end of 2021, according to a U.S. attorney's press release, Muller allegedly accepted things like cash, checks and a used pickup truck from five vendors.

One of those vendors is John Colantuoni, president of a construction and landscaping company in Norwood. Prosecutors allege Muller accepted up to $85,000 in building materials for a personal vacation home from Colantuoni.

Colantuoni, 60, of Westwood, has also been charged with one count of making bribes to Muller, one count of conspiring to commit bribery, one count of conspiring to commit mail fraud and one count of obstruction of justice.

Bribery charges can carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. Muller made his initial court appearance at the Boston federal courthouse Friday.