EMERYVILLE — The former owner of a now-defunct Emeryville upholstering company has been sentenced in Alameda County Superior Court to six months in jail and ordered to pay $44,120 in restitution and fines for stealing from four employees’ pension accounts.

Lance Silva, former owner of the National Upholstering Company, was sentenced on May 26 by Superior Court Judge Dan Grimmer, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The department announced the sentencing on Monday.

Silva was convicted of two counts of grand theft after he pleaded no contest to those charges in Superior Court in February.

The payment ordered by Grimmer included $43,380 in reimbursement to the 401(k) accounts of four employees and another $740 in penalties and fines, the department said.

The criminal case stemmed from a referral to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office by the Labor Department, which conducted a civil investigation following complaints by the 401(k) plan participants.

Silva, who was a trustee of the plan, was accused of stealing $43,380 between September and November 2011 by posing as the four workers, altering their pension account and contact information, and having distribution checks sent to himself.

The upholstering company closed in June 2010, according to the Labor Department.

The department filed a separate civil lawsuit against Silva in federal court in Oakland in April, charging him with violating his duties as a trustee.

That lawsuit asks for restitution of any losses, appointment of an independent trustee of the 401(k) plan, an order requiring Silva pay the new trustee’s fees, and an order permanently barring him from serving as a

trustee of any employee benefit plan.

A case management conference on the federal lawsuit is scheduled before U.S. Magistrate Kandis Westmore in Oakland on July 21.

Labor Department administrator Klaus Placke said that now that the Superior Court will be supervising the restitution payments, department lawyers handling the civil lawsuit will focus on the appointment of the independent trustee and winding down the pension plan.

The former upholstery workers will be able to choose between transferring their 401(k) funds to another plan or receiving distributions, said Placke, who is acting regional director of the department’s Employee

Benefits Security Administration regional office in San Francisco.

The plan is believed to have at least $270,000 remaining in assets, according to the lawsuit.