D.C. charter school founder charged with embezzling $29,000

A co-founder and former executive director of the now-closed Nia Community Public Charter School has been charged with embezzling $29,000 from the school, according to court documents.

Between March and August 2008, then-Nia Executive Director Monique Murdock wrote five checks to her foster child, each ranging between $4,000 and $8,000, using school funds, according to the criminal filing filed this month in U.S. District Court. The checks were then deposited into a savings account that Murdock had created for the child — who is identified in the documents only as D.N. — and all but $100 was transferred into other accounts belonging to Murdock.