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The owner of a San Fernando Valley trucking school was sentenced Monday to four years in federal prison for orchestrating a scheme that siphoned more than $4 million from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, officials said.

Emmit Marshall, 53, of Woodland Hills was also ordered to pay $4.1 million in restitution, according to a release from the U.S. attorney’s office.

Marshall, who was the owner and president of Alliance School of Trucking, pleaded guilty to five counts of wire fraud last July. 

Co-defendant Robert Waggoner, 57, of Canyon Country also pleaded guilty last February to five counts of wire fraud and is expected to be sentenced next year.

While president of the company, Marshall and Waggoner, who was vice president, recruited over 100 eligible veterans to take classes paid for by the Post-9/11 GI Bill, prosecutors said.

Marshall told the veterans they could collect housing and other fees from the VA without having to attend classes, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. 

Under that bill, the Chatsworth-based trucking school was certified to offer classes that included a 160-hour class and a 600-hour class. In both of these classes, the VA paid tuition and fees directly to the school, as well as a housing allowance to veterans, plus books and supplies, the Justice Department said.

From July 2011 to April 2015, as a result of the scheme, the VA paid the school at least $4.1 million in tuition and fee payments for veterans who purportedly attended the program, authorities said.

Prosecutors said Marshall occasionally used the veterans’ personal information and forged signatures to sign them up for benefits, sometimes without their permission. Marshall also directed the veterans to lie to VA investigators and ordered co-schemers to destroy documents that could be traced back to the scheme, officials said.

In their sentencing memorandum, prosecutors said Marshall “profited most from this conduct, pocketing nearly $1 million himself.” Marshall allegedly used the money to buy jewelry, purchase a Ford F-150 and semi-tractor trailers for new a business, and pay for vacations and property taxes on his Woodland Hills home, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.