[JURIST] A US district court on Wednesday sentenced [press release] former North Carolina State Assembly member Stephen Laroque to 24 months in prison for embezzling [LII backgrounder] hundreds of thousands of dollars from a non-profit he ran. Last January Laroque plead guilty to taking money from East Carolina Development Co., which was federally funded. The charges included in the plea involved a count of theft, embezzlement, and misapplication of $150,000 in USDA funds. The former lawmaker was convicted of 12 counts in relation to his crime by a jury in 2013. However a new trial was granted after a juror used outside research to make his decision and influence other jurors. Laroque has been ordered to pay $300,000 in restitution to the US Department of Agriculture and was fined $5,000.

Embezzlement and other corruption by US politicians is less common than in some other countries, but still occurs. In 2011, a jury in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois convicted [JURIST report] former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich on 17 of 20 counts including attempting to sell the US Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama. In 2006, FBI agents videotaped [JURIST report] US Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) accepting $100,000 in cash as a bribe from a Nigerian official.