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Man sentenced for embezzling money to support gambling habit

A 28-year-old Hoffman Estates man pled guilty to stealing more than $580,000 from his workplace and was sentenced to four years in prison, authorities said Monday.

Earl Reisler of the 1300 block of Westbury Drive was an assistant controller at American Inter-Continental University, the Cook County state's attorney's office said. The school offers online courses and has offices inside the Prairie Stone Business Park in Hoffman Estates. The parent company is Career Education Corp., which is seeking to move to Schaumburg.

Reisler would take the money to gamble online, at off-track betting parlors and at Arlington Park, prosecutors said. He wrote 141 checks to himself from March 26, 2006, to July 24, 2008, making fraudulent entries in the school's bank ledger showing the money was going to other employees, prosecutors said.

Judge Dennis Porter sentenced Reisler after he pleaded guilty to one felony count of theft. He initially pleaded not guilty when he was arraigned on May 28, prosecutors said.

Reisler's Facebook page shows he graduated in 1998 from Fremd High School in Palatine and majored in accounting at Northern Illinois University, graduating in 2003.

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