Heather Murdock
Introduction
Heather Murdock, 58, of Ellington, Connecticut, pleaded guilty on September 1, 2026, before U.S. District Judge Sarah F. Russell in New Haven to fraud and tax offenses stemming from an embezzlement scheme she ran for more than a decade as the bookkeeper and office manager of a Hartford law firm identified in court documents as “Firm A” . United States Attorney David X. Sullivan’s announcement documents two theft streams — approximately $578,279 stolen through hundreds of forged checks and approximately $175,559 stolen in tenant rental payments — plus $225,991 in unreported tax obligations on the embezzled income . Murdock pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud, carrying a maximum term of 30 years, and one count of tax evasion, carrying a maximum of five years, and has agreed to pay $753,838.70 in restitution to the victim and the full tax debt to the IRS .
Background Information
Murdock occupied the exact position of trust the scheme exploited: she ran the bookkeeping software of the Hartford law firm, and between approximately 2010 and 2022 she used it to generate hundreds of false checks made payable to herself, forging the signature of the firm’s owner . To keep the payments invisible, she doctored the bookkeeping entries so the checks appeared to have been issued to legitimate vendors, and deposited the forged checks into her own bank account — approximately $578,279 stolen this way .
The second stream came from the firm owner’s real estate. Murdock stole cash rental payments made by tenants of properties owned by the firm’s owner, and concealed that theft by generating false checks from the firm’s bank account payable to the account where the owner received rental income, making it look as though the expected rent deposits had arrived, and doctoring the bookkeeping references to match — approximately $175,559 stolen . On top of the thefts, she failed to pay federal income taxes on the embezzled funds, substantially underreported her income in 2011 and 2012, and filed no tax returns at all for the 2013 through 2022 tax years, leaving underreported tax obligations totaling $225,991 .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Pleaded guilty; sentencing pending.
The September 1, 2026, plea resolved the two counts: bank fraud, an offense carrying a maximum 30-year term, and tax evasion, carrying a maximum five-year term . Murdock has also agreed to pay $753,838.70 in restitution to the victim — a figure that matches the two documented theft streams combined — and $225,991 in back taxes plus penalties and interest to the IRS . Judge Russell scheduled sentencing for December 1, and Murdock is released on a $40,000 bond pending that hearing .
The scheme’s defining feature is duration and concealment rather than a single incident: a twelve-year run of forged checks disguised as vendor payments, and a parallel record fabrication that manufactured rent deposits which never happened . No statement from Murdock is recorded in the release. The investigation was conducted by the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division, and the case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Elena L. Coronado .
Public Reaction and Consequences
The release records no comment from the victim law firm and no public statement from Murdock; the documented reaction is the federal investigation that unwound both theft streams from the firm’s own books . The consequences are the two felony convictions by plea, the agreed $753,838.70 restitution, the agreed $225,991 back-tax payment with penalties and interest, and a December 1 sentencing that will determine the prison term across a combined 35-year statutory maximum . The documented victims are the law firm whose owner’s signature she forged hundreds of times and the IRS, and the release notes she is free on a $40,000 bond pending sentencing .
Current Status
Murdock pleaded guilty on September 1, 2026, and awaits sentencing on December 1 before Judge Russell, held to the agreed restitution and tax payments as conditions of the plea . She is released on a $40,000 bond, and the release does not state a sentencing recommendation or whether the two counts will run concurrently . The bank fraud count alone carries a 30-year maximum, and the tax evasion count adds five more; the agreed payments of roughly $980,000 across restitution and back taxes are the documented monetary measure of the scheme .
Impact on Their Career/Life
The plea ends Murdock’s bookkeeping career on a record documenting twelve years of forging her employer’s signature, inventing vendor payments, and fabricating rental deposit records inside the accounting system she controlled . The case is also a decade-long tax record: nine consecutive years without filing a return while drawing unreported embezzled income, now reconciled through the agreed $225,991 payment to the IRS . What the release does not document is any indication the firm detected the scheme internally — the investigation that produced the FBI and IRS-Criminal Division case is the documented source of the reckoning, and the December 1 sentencing will convert the agreed payments and felony pleas into a final judgment .
Sources
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Connecticut, “Ellington Woman Pleads Guilty to Fraud and Tax Offenses”, September 1, 2026 — source