Bookkeeper Pleads Guilty to Stealing $754,000 from Law Firm

A Connecticut bookkeeper named Heather Murdock has pleaded guilty to bank fraud and tax evasion. Federal prosecutors say she stole nearly 754,000 dollars from her law firm over the course of a decade.

Murdock acted as the office manager and used company software to write checks to herself while forging the owner's signature. She disguised these payments as legitimate vendor expenses and also pocketed cash from rental properties managed by the firm. To keep the scheme quiet, she falsified internal records and shifted money between various accounts.

The investigation revealed that Murdock failed to report the stolen funds as income for many years. She skipped tax filings from 2013 through 2022 and underreported her earnings in 2011 and 2012. This left her with a tax debt of over 225,000 dollars.

As part of her plea agreement, she is required to pay back the full amount taken from the firm and resolve her outstanding federal tax debt. She is currently out on bond and awaiting sentencing, which is set for December 1st.