ROSEVILLE, Calif. (KTXL) — A man was sentenced to eight years and eight months in prison for embezzling over $2 million from a local business, the Placer County District attorney’s Office said.

The DA’s office said Robert Barnack, 67, approached the business, an agricultural company based in Sutter County, offering to help them get higher returns from their profit-sharing plan for employees.

According to the DA’s office, from 2012 to 2017 Barnack provided the company with statements showing the promised higher returns but when employees attempted to cash out in 2017 he “avoided their requests.”

In 2018 the company sued Barnack’s company and discovered that Barnack used the money the victims intended to invest to buy cars, jewelry, pay for college tuition and other personal items.

“The owner had built the company with the hopes of leaving a legacy and being able to financially support themselves, their loved ones and their employees,” the DA’s office said.

According to the DA’s office, the owner of the Sutter County company “personally paid for his employees to be made whole in their employee profit-sharing plan, at the cost of losing nearly everything.”

In court, Barnack admitted to two felony counts of fraudulent intent to appropriate funds and Judge Angus St. Evans sentenced him to the maximum time allowable.