The former treasurer for the city of Zeigler, Illinois has been sentenced in federal court to four years in prison for embezzlement.

Ryan Thorpe was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Benton. He was ordered to pay a special assessment to the government of $500 and restitution without interest at a totaling nearly $321,400.

Thorpe pleaded guilty to federal charges of wire fraud and embezzlement in March 2018.

According to the Department of Justice, from 2013 to August of 2017, Thorpe wrote checks to himself from the city of Ziegler. 

Investigators said Thorpe took the checks and “whited out” his name in the payee section of the checks, wrote in the names of vendors and suppliers that the city did business with, made copies of the altered checks, and placed those copies in the bank records kept by the city. Thorpe then allegedly shredded the “whited out” copies of the checks.

Thorpe concealed his theft further by submitting false monthly Treasurer’s Reports to the Zeigler City Council, according to a release from the Department of Justice.