U.S. Marshals have gained access to safety deposit boxes controlled by former Select Board member John George, 69, uncovering $1 million in concealed assets.

Earlier this year, George was sentenced to 70 months in prison for embezzling thousands from the taxpayer-subsidized Southeastern Regional Bus Company. U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper ordered George to pay a $1.38 million forfeiture to the federal government and $688,772 owed in restitution.

Prior to the sentencing, George was required to disclose his financial status to the court. He stated he had roughly $160,000 in bank accounts and $28,000 in cash.

Following sentencing, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and U.S. Marshals sought warrants to obtain assets they believed went unreported.

As result of those warrants, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz announced this week that U.S. Marshalls “discovered over-sized safe deposit boxes filled to the brim” with rolls of $100 and $50 dollar bills in Fairhaven and New Bedford.

George owned both John George Farms in Dartmouth and the Union Street Bus Company. George was convicted on charges that he embezzled money from his bus company, which operated under a SRTA contract.

While operating under his SRTA contract, George had bus employees work on his farm during bus company work hours. George also inflated his yearly salary from $75,000 to $275,000 as a means of boosting his SRTA pension.

In explanation of prosecutors' suspicions in seeking the search warrants, Ortiz noted that, from 2007 to 2011, George deposited only $5,000 in cash into his farm account despite the farm being “the largest retail produce farm in Southeastern Massachusetts” and doing most of its business through cash transactions.