"In essence, this was a crime committed by a financial insider against a small or medium business organization," prosecutors wrote. "A sentence will serve to inform others who contemplate similar crimes — that is fraud by insiders employed in similar organizations — that such actions will result in a felony conviction and significant consequences."

Farrell's attorney, however, argued for no prison time because his client took full responsibility for his crime, felt remorse and shame for it, had no previous criminal history, cooperated with investigators, and paid full restitution by exhausting his life savings and retirement fund and borrowing money from relatives, including his elderly parents.

After holding a string of minimum wage jobs, he managed to land a job as a bookkeeper for a local law firm where attorneys were aware of his crime and praised his outstanding work performance and professionalism. In fact, the law firm recently offered Farrell a full-time job, which he accepted.

Farrell served as the president/CEO of $18.6 million New Haven County Credit Union from 1992 to June 2015.  He was then retained by NHCCU's board of directors to assist the new CEO until he resigned in March 2016 when the fraud was discovered by the credit union.

From 2010 until 2016, Farrell also provided financial and bookkeeping services to The Rib House, an East Haven restaurant, which maintained a business account at NHCCU. Farrell was responsible for depositing cash sales and paying invoices for the restaurant.

In pleading guilty to one count of bank fraud in August, the former executive admitted that between July 2011 and March 2016, he fraudulently transferred $602,908 from the NHCCU general ledger account primarily to The Rib House account and, to a lesser extent, for his own personal benefit, according to court documents and statements made in court.

When Farrell knew that The Rib House didn't have enough cash to pay its bills, he tapped the credit union's funds to pay for the restaurant's operating costs, including its taxes, food, liquor and other expenses.

However, Farrell took more than $13,000 to pay the cell phone bills of his family members. What's more, he stole $9,000 in cash from the credit union's cash drawers for his own use, according court documents.

While he was stealing from the credit union's coffers from 2011 to 2016, NCUA financial performance reports show that NHCCU posted six-figure and five-figure losses in four out of those six years for a total net income loss of $429,826.

Over time, Farrell replenished $370,278 to NHCCU's general ledger account, leaving a shortfall of $232,630. He has paid full restitution to the credit union, federal prosecutors said.

In July 2017, Farrell signed a consent order with the Connecticut Department of Banking, paid a $10,000 fine and agreed not to hold any position with a financial institution in the state or federal credit union. In October 2017, he also signed an NCUA prohibition order banning him from participating in the affairs of any federally insured financial institution, according to court documents.

Last August, the Connecticut state regulator placed NHCCU under a consent order for alleged unsafe and unsound practices.

The consent order lists 14 different stipulations. Some of them require NHCCU to develop and implement effective internal controls and a budget, review and revise all loan policies, provide bank secrecy employee training and hire a consultant who will develop a written analysis and assessment of the credit union's board, management, and staff for the purpose of providing qualified supervision and staffing at the credit union.

At the end of September, the credit union posted a net worth of 7.87%, up from its net worth of 6.48% in September 2018, according to NCUA financial performance reports.