The former chief financial officer for Buffalo's Franklin Assets Management investment firm was taken into custody today after being sentenced to up to four years in prison on his third corporate embezzlement conviction.

Robert Burchett, 48, of Silver Creek, admitted stealing more than $60,000 while working as Franklin's chief financial officer in 2008 and last year before his firing last summer. He told the judge he was sorry, "obviously."

Burchett pleaded guilty Oct. 28 to third-degree grand larceny. He was ordered by State Supreme Court Justice John L. Michalski to make $222.50 a month in restitution payments starting three months after his release from state prison.

John C. Doscher, chief of the Erie County District Attorney's Special Investigations Bureau, said the firm has been partially compensated through corporate insurance and a Buffalo bank which cashed what proved to be Burchett's forged corporate checks. It is still out $25,428.

Doscher told the judge that Burchett served a few months in jail for the earlier embezzlements of $64,000 from firms he worked for in both Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties in 1999 through early 2001.