Morrison man sentenced to federal prison for embezzlement

ROCKFORD – A Morrison man has been sentenced to five months in federal prison and fined $5,000, plus restitution, after he was convicted of stealing more than $55,000 from the security union at Cordova nuclear power plant.

Brent Toppert, 43, also must serve six months house arrest, according to a news release Wednesday from Acting U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual.

From 2013 to 2018, Toppert took $55,140.98 from the bank account of Local 238, the Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America, when he was its elected secretary-treasurer.

Toppert was charged on Jan. 17 and pleaded guilty Feb. 9 to embezzlement from a labor organization.

He could have been sentenced up to five years and fined up to $250,000, but he has no criminal history and, before his plea, made full restitution to the union, court records show. He was sentenced on Tuesday.

“The offense is an abberation in an otherwise lawfully lived life,” the prosecution wrote in its document laying out the sentencing factors, which are used in federal court to calculate the severity of a crime and the length and conditions of the sentence.

The crime also was not sophisticated or elaborate: Toppert merely made withdrawals and used the money to pay his bills or obtain cash, it said.

Toppert will remain free pending his self-surrender to federal authorities on Aug. 1.