A prominent Sacramento developer pleaded no contest to two counts of embezzlement in Sacramento Superior Court and will serve two years of house arrest as part of his deal.

Chris Vrame was charged with 34 counts of felony embezzlement after he embezzled more than $4.1 million from investors between 2013 and 2017 meant to buy an unidentified property, according to court documents. He pleaded not guilty in March 2021 and was set for trial later this year.

According to court papers, Vrame took $3.6 million from KV Sierra Vista LLC and $731,000 the Conservancy to Protect the Land, two entities he controlled. Investors discovered the scheme when they came across a document in the copy room of Vrame’s business office, according to previous Bee reporting.

Vrame, a relative of Sacramento megadeveloper Angelo Tsakopoulos and former president of the Del Paso Country Club, created an investor group named SV Baseline LLC to purchase the property. But in June 2016, investors discovered there was debt involved with the property purchase and that Vrame “admitted that he had financed the purchase of the property” and had done so “for business reasons” that were justified, court records say.

A year later in July 2017, Vrame showed a balance sheet to investors indicating the entity had $3 million in the bank as of June 21, 2017, court records say.

“Unbeknownst to the SV Baseline investors, Vrame had borrowed the $3 million from an outside company (Company #1) on June 16, 2016,” court records say.

That loan was for 20 days, with a $15,000 fee instead of interest spelled out in a Deposit Authorization Control agreement, or DACA, court records say.

“In effect, the DACA allowed Vrame to show that KV Sierra Vista had $3 million that it did not actually have,” court records say.

His defense attorney, Bill Portanova, said Vrame changed his plea Monday to receive a sentence of probation and home detention. If the Sacramento developer had gone to trial and been found guilty, he would have faced three years in prison for each charge.

If he completes his two-year probation with no issues, Portanova said, Vrame’s offenses will be reduced to misdemeanors and dropped. According to court documents, Vrame paid full restitution to investors of KV Sierra Vista and the conservancy. He’ll also pay $30,000 restitution fines, according to the Special Prosecution Section of the state’s Department of Justice, which tried the case.

“Clients sometimes choose to accept plea bargains simply to end the stresses of a case and its financial burdens. Chris Vrame pleaded no contest to dramatically reduced charges, the matter is now closed,” Portanova said. “Within 24 months both charges will be reduced to misdemeanors and dismissed by the court.

“In other words, it is a slow dismissal of the case.”

The Attorney General’s Office lauded the sentencing as “an example of the justice system working how it was intended.”

“The victims of this embezzlement have been given back what was stolen and the guilty party has taken responsibility and been held responsible,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “I am proud of my team for all their work on this case and am glad this was a positive outcome.”

Bonta’s office did not return a call seeking further comment on the case.