Corrupt politicians don't have to repay the state government for money they steal from the public, but people who embezzle from nonprofit groups do have to make full restitution for their thefts, a state appeals court panel has ruled.

The Superior Court judges made that distinction in denying an appeal from 64-year-old Beverly Steffey, a Kittanning woman who stole nearly $220,000 from three nonprofit groups in Armstrong County.

Steffey tried to invoke the so-called Veon decision to escape an order to pay restitution to the Allegheny Valley Land Trust, the Armstrong County Conservancy and the Progressive Workshop, where she had served as financial officer.

The Veon decision was issued by the state Supreme Court in November 2016 in the case of former state Rep. Michael Veon, who was convicted of misusing a state-funded nonprofit for political gain. The high court ruled that Veon did not have to pay $135,000 in restitution to the state in that case because the state cannot be considered a crime victim under the law because it isn't human.

The Veon ruling has since spared several convicted former legislators and aides, including former House Speakers John Perzel and Bill DeWeese, from having to repay restitution totaling well over $1 million to the state for pilfering the public purse.

Steffey argued to the Superior Court that the free pass extended by the Veon ruling should apply to her case as well. Like the state, nonprofits are "non-natural persons" to whom no restitution is legally due, she contended.

Wrong, Judge Jack A. Panella concluded in the Superior Court's decision.

Steffey might appear to have a good argument "at first blush," Panella found, but it sinks under further scrutiny. "We conclude the Supreme Court did not intend such a sweeping modification of the law of restitution," he wrote.

Panella found that state law "explicitly includes corporations and other limited liability organizations in the definition of 'person'."

So, he concluded, Steffey has to pay up.

Steffey received a 15-month to 3-year prison sentence in addition to her restitution order. Investigators said she spent years forging checks to siphon money from the accounts of the three nonprofits.