Markham bought this house at 17002 Freshwater Lane in Cornelius

The drama in the wake of the William Markham embezzlement case is drawing to a close. The Cornelius house that he bought with his Concord employer’s money has just been sold for $3.425 million.

The man who lived the high life for a few years will be out of prison in four months.

Butner Federal Correctional Complex — the same North Carolina prison where Bernard Madoff is doing 150 years — says Markham, 58, gets out of prison on June 10 of this year.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Federal Court, Bill Markham was retained by Concord resident Joe Lockavitch in 1993 to provide accounting and consulting services for Failure Free Reading, a Concord-based business that teaches reading skills to at-risk and special education students.

Markham was a personable man who liked to talk about having a son in the Marines.

But from 1999 to 2004, over $3 million disappeared from the Lockavitch businesses. One of his methods was to order checks for various accounts. Markham wrote unauthorized checks to himself and his accounting firm in amounts that ranged from $1,000 to $90,000.

Lockavitch’s money provided Markham with a lavish lifestyle. Indeed, the magnificent stone house on Freshwater Lane in The Peninsula was just down Harbor Light Boulevard from his first home in the swank neighborhood, only it wasn’t quite as grand. Markham said he and his wife loved the view of the second house from the first.

Lockavitch said the entire Markham episode was a painful experience for him and his wife. “I wish he were in longer, he did a lot of disruption to my personal life and business, no doubt about it,” he said.

A Ph.D from Boston University, Lockavitch said he got a lot of bad advice on how to handle the matter. For one thing, Markham was able to remove all the furnishings and property from the Harbor Light house. The Lockavitch’s received virtually no restitution. “He’s a career criminal,” Lockavitch said, explaining that he hired Markham back in 1999 before the internet simplified background checks.

“I got burned on that pretty badly, but you reach a point where you say ‘things happen’ and move on,” he said. “This was a ‘Lifetime’ movie.”

Business is coming back at Failure Free Learning, despite the recession. “The fact that we’re here and viable and doing reasonably well is good,” said Lockavitch, whose business employs 12 people.