DOWNTOWN — Former Field Museum employee Caryn Benson pilfered six figures by literally pocketing cash for museum memberships without ever recording the sales, the Downtown museum and federal authorities said Wednesday.
Benson, 38, of Romeoville was charged with one count of felony embezzlement Tuesday, court records show. The charge came a few days after the Field Museum told local press a former employee stole $900,000 in membership dues over seven years.
Benson was hired through a temp agency in 2003, and after doing "a good job" was promoted to a full-time position, said Ray DeThorne, the Field's chief marketing officer. Benson was a "data services manager" when she was caught and she handled some membership sales, apparently skimming all the cash deals her way.
DeThorne said the museum has since installed measures to ensure similar crimes don't occur again.
Because Benson never recorded her transactions with the museum, there was no paper trail for Benson's higher-ups at the Field or its outside audit firm, DeThorne said.
"You can’t hold an audit firm accountable for something that can’t be audited. There wasn’t any record," DeThorne said.
New preventative measures include installing security cameras wherever money is handled in the museum, disallowing employees from cashing themselves out at the end of the business day, and sorting out any cash discrepancies the day they arise, DeThorne said.
According to WTTW-Channel 11, Benson was accused of stealing from a prior employer before the museum in 1997. DeThorne said the temp agency that referred her completed a background check.
Benson now faces a federal criminal charge that carries a sentence up to 10 years in prison, said Joe Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago.
Though the Field reported in a tax filing earlier this month that Benson stole more than $900,000, the federal charge Tuesday only accuses her of taking $33,104. DeThorne and Fitzpatrick declined to address the discrepancy.
One reason why could be that Benson is negotiating a plea deal, said Victor P. Henderson, a partner at Loop-based trial law firm Henderson Parks LLC.
"One of the things about federal prosecutions versus state prosecution, there’s a lot of stuff that happens behind the scenes," Henderson said. A plea deal "is not unreasonable."
Benson is set to appear in federal court next week. Read the charges against her below:
Federal charges against Caryn Benson
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
