A few weeks ago, local news outlets in Franklin County, Pennsylvania began reporting on a former treasurer of the Moss Springs Pool, Krista Murr, embezzling almost $150,000 from July 2017 to July 2024.
Moss City Swim Club is a seasonal swimming pool in Franklin County in the South-Central part of the state. They run a summer swim team for kids from ages 5-18, competing in meets with other summer-league teams in their area.
The club first raised concerns about fraud in July when Murr informed the club they had about $150,000 saved. They began questioning her about the amount, and after she refused to provide documentation for a few days, she presented three years worth of documents that showed the club had saved $150,651.
One of the club members went to the bank they used the next day, and obtained documentation that the club had $158,930 saved. Just hours later, however, Murr appeared with “updated” documentation showing a total of $185,507.63. They discovered this increase came from three cashier’s checks Murr deposited into the account from the bank that the club had previously used, Orrstown
This discrepancy led to one of the board members contacting the former bank on July 19th. Through this contact, the board discovered that the club had two accounts at the bank, one of which was open and active. They requested the statements, but never received them.
According to the police, on July 22nd the board member called the bank again to request the statements, only to be transferred to Murr herself, who was an employee at the bank and was trying to prevent them from obtaining the statements.
The board member then tried to go to the bank in person, where the bank teller denied their attempt to see the statements because they were allegedly receiving text messages from Murr instructing them not to.
This interaction alerted the bank’s fraud investigator who found evidence that Murr had been using the money for personal use to pay her bills, her mortgage, cover house repairs, and more. The investigator reported the fraud to the Greencastle police that day.
The next day, July 23rd, Murr’s attorney contacted the police informing them that she was going to cooperate with the investigation. In her questioning, Murr admitted to stealing money from the club, even saying it was “easy” because the club never audited their accounts. In total, she embezzled $148,292.56 over the seven years she was working for them. She also said she stole cash from the concession stands, but she didn’t know an exact amount.
Murr’s preliminary hearing is set for January 7th, and she is currently out of prison on a $75,000 bail.
This actually happens more frequently than you would think. PTAs, preschools, other sports teams, desperate for volunteers, and a lack of internal controls. Always try to prevent frauds by creating a segeration of duties (2 check signors, etc)
Before getting in the news all the time for prosecuting Trump, Jack Smith was involved in several corruption cases in the early 2010s, the most high profile of which were charges against then governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell. It was was a pretty open and shut case of bribery, except given the profile it made it’s way to SCOTUS, who unanimously overturned the conviction. The rationale was nothing short of “if this clear case of accepting a bribe constitutes corruption, then the whole government could be prosecuted”.
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Wow…
Opportunity yields fraud. Happens all the time in not for profits.
Wow, how does a ” seasonal” club make so much money?
Well that’s not a very good treasurer
Where is Franklin County? The article says it’s in the south-central part of the state, but never says which state.
Caption under photo says PA.
Does she know Andy Dufrense?
She’s going to.
What I’m trying to figure out is how does a summer team save 150k???
This is not just a swim team, it’s a summer pool association. A quick glance of the club shows 325 ish members at $500 a pop for the season. When you throw in swim team, lessons, etc it’s not difficult to crack $200k in revenue for the year. Skimming 10% of the top each year is probably not too difficult, especially when you have a conflict of interest. Of note, if you have a pool association and you are only bringing in $200k, then you are not even close to being where you need to be financially. Unfortunately, this club was already on life support (maybe one large repair away from insolvency), and this may be their nail in the… Read more »
So her bail is less than the money she embezzled? How does that work?
They’re completely unrelated. Bail is not a penalty for the crime; that comes later