Whiteside County Man Pleads Guilty To Embezzlement From a Labor Organization

ROCKFORD — A Morrison, Ill. man pleaded guilty in federal court before U.S. District Judge Iain D. Johnston to embezzling from a labor organization. 

BRENT TOPPERT, 42, was the elected Financial Secretary-Treasurer of Local 238 of the Security, Police, and Fire Professionals of America (SPFPA).  The SPFPA represented members engaged in providing security at a nuclear plant in Cordova, Ill.  Toppert admitted in a plea agreement that in 2018 he made an unauthorized withdrawal of $500 from a bank account owned by the SPFPA, and that the withdrawal was not for any business purpose.  Toppert admitted that he converted this money to his personal use.

The government alleged in the plea agreement that Toppert converted a total of $63,713.14 of the SPFPA’s assets to his personal use.

Toppert faces a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment.  The actual sentence will be determined by the U.S. District Court, guided by the Sentencing Guidelines.  Sentencing is set for June 6, 2023 at 1:30 p.m. 

The guilty plea was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Thomas Murray, District Director of the U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Labor Management Standards.  The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael D. Love.