Connecticut Law Firm Office Manager Pleads Guilty to Embezzling Over $750,000
Heather Murdock, a 58-year-old former bookkeeper and office manager from Ellington, Connecticut, has pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of tax evasion. She admitted to embezzling over $500,000 from a Hartford law firm, identified as 'Firm A,' and an additional $175,000 in cash rental payments from properties owned by the firm's owner. According to court records, Murdock executed her scheme between 2010 and 2022 by generating hundreds of fraudulent checks payable to herself using the firm's bookkeeping software and forging the owner's signature. To conceal her actions, she doctored bookkeeping entries to make it appear as though the checks were issued to legitimate vendors. She also stole cash rental payments and created false checks from the firm's bank account to the owner's rental income account to mask the theft. Furthermore, Murdock failed to pay federal income taxes on the embezzled funds, underreported her income in 2011 and 2012, and did not file tax returns from 2013 through 20... 
