Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that DAVID J. BERTNAGEL, 41, of Thomaston, waived his right to indictment and pleaded guilty today in Bridgeport federal court to theft and tax charges stemming from his embezzlement of more than $800,000 from the Town of Plymouth.

According to court documents and statements made in court, from October 2011 through October 2014, BERTNAGEL was employed as the Finance Director for the Town of Plymouth.  During that time period, BERTNAGEL issued 207 checks totaling approximately $808,030 from the Town’s payroll account to himself.  BERTNAGEL used the embezzled funds to make mortgage payments, pay credit card bills, fund home improvement projects and purchase more than $100,000 in coins, stamps and other collectibles.  He also converted more than $182,000 of the stolen funds by way of cashed checks, ATM withdrawals and money orders.

In addition, BERTNAGEL’s federal tax returns for the 2012 and 2013 tax years failed to report any of his embezzled income, resulting in a tax loss to the government of $145,564 for those two years.  BERTNAGEL also did not file a tax return with the IRS for the 2011 tax year...