Field Museum Embezzler Pleads Guilty

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Fritz Geller-Grimm

CHICAGO, IL — The Romeoville resident accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Field Museum where she worked has pleaded guilty to the charge.

Caryn Benson, 38, faces up to 37 months in prison under a plea agreement she entered Monday before U.S. District Judge James Zagel, the Associated Press reports.

Benson is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 25.

While it’s believed that more than $900,000 was taken over seven years, Benson’s charge reportedly accuses her of stealing just $33,014. She is also suspected of stealing money from cash bars during membership events.

Field Museum Chief Marketing Officer Ray DeThorne told the Sun-Times Benson would give people a “temporary member card without putting the payment in the system.”

Officials with the museum noticed the missing money in April 2014 after it underwent restructuring and saw there was money missing from the membership department, according to the Sun-Times.

“As we were making that move, we realized there was a discrepancy of the new members registered in our system and the revenue that should coincide with that,” DeThorne told the paper.

According to Chicago Tonight, Benson was hired as a temp in 2003. She was fired in April 2014.

In 1997, Benson was reportedly accused of stealing from a motor supply company where she was employed as a clerk.

DeThorne told Chicago Tonight that the background check done on Benson had come back clean.