HARTFORD — A Westport man has been sentenced to four years in prison by a federal judge after pleading guilty to stealing nearly $4.5 million while an executive for a cryptocurrency firm.

Dylan Meissner, 31, in addition to the four-year prison term, was sentenced Tuesday to two years of supervised release by U.S. District Judge Michael Shea.

Currently free on $100,000 bond, Meissner is scheduled to report to prison Feb. 21, according to an announcement by Vanessa Roberts Avery, the U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut.

Meissner, the vice president of an unidentified cryptocurrency firm, was granted a loan of “50 Ethereum,” valued at about $170,000, by his employer in January 2022 to cover “a substantial loss in certain cryptocurrency investments he had made using his personal funds,” Roberts said at the time of Meissner’s guilty plea last July.

Meissner, who because of his position had access to the firm’s crypto wallets and bank accounts, from February through November 2022 fraudulently diverted more funds from the business to cover his continued personal losses, according to the announcement.

He was able to temporarily conceal the theft through bogus entries in the firm’s books and records.

Meissner’s scheme caused a total loss to the firm of approximately $4,461,828, Avery said.

He was ordered by the judge to pay restitution of $4,633,424.99, including the money he stole and the loan he failed to repay to his employer.

The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Novick.