The owner of a Bridgeport nursing home that was searched by the feds in 2018 will pay $1.5 million to settle multiple lawsuits over raiding employees' health insurance and retirement funds.

Bridgeport Health Care Center owner Chaim Stern pleaded guilty to criminal charges in January. He is set to be sentenced sometime this fall.

The agreement also provides $1.7 million from an insurance policy for workers' health insurance and retirement funds. In addition, Stern must pay the U.S. Department of Labor nearly $500,000 in civil penalties.

Workers like Lorna Campbell spoke to News 12 back in 2015, saying her pension was gone. Other employees' doctor bills went unpaid.

According to a plea deal, Stern now admits he took $4 million out of his own employees' pensions, and didn't pay another $4 million in taxes. By 2017, the pension fund was down to just $588.

Stern's lawyer Stan Twardy insists much of the money went back into the nursing home just to keep it open.

"The state was not reimbursing for the care of the individuals who were staying there ... the number of beds that were being utilized were going down," says Twardy.

But court records show Stern wrote himself big checks with pension money.

In a statement, Stern says,

Two federal judges still have to approve the legal settlement. Under the deal, Stern will also have to pay nearly a half-million dollars in federal penalties.