PORTLAND – A former accountant at the Oregon Department of Education who embezzled nearly $1 million in federal grant money pleaded guilty Thursday to a fraud charge.

Brent Crosson, the department’s former director of accounting services, appeared in U.S. District Court Thursday in front of Judge Garr King.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office has recommended that he spend at least two years in prison and repay the stolen money, plus interest.

King is to sentence him June 17. The maximum penalty is 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

Paul Ferder, Crosson’s attorney, said King could well decide on more than two years of prison time.

“Judge King is a fairly strict sentencing judge when it comes to stealing from the public,” Ferder said.

Neither Crosson nor his family members would comment after the brief court appearance. But in response to questioning from King, Crosson admitted that between June 2006 and June 2007, he diverted $925,000 to CGA Wholesale, an online guns and ammunition dealer that he controlled.

That money was intended for charter schools, school-based health clinics and anti-drug youth initiatives.

About $750,000 of it has been returned to the state Department of Education.

Crosson was released until the sentencing.

No other employees from the department appear to have been involved in the Crosson case, Caldwell said. Education department officials have said Crosson may have forged documents to transfer the funds without raising red flags.

The Department of Administrative Services has launched an audit of the Department of Education’s accounting practices.

Ferder said his client’s motives for the embezzlement were, “the same as anyone’s motives: greed, avarice, financial need, the sense that he could get away with it. He is very embarrassed by the situation.”