Ex-Field Museum Employee Charged In Seven-Year Swindle

CHICAGO (STMW) -- The feds have charged a former longtime Field Museum employee days after it was revealed that the museum had been swindled out of more than $900,000 in cash over seven years.

Caryn Benson, 38, of Romeoville, has been charged with one count of embezzlement, according to court records that identify the museum only as "Organization A" and describe it as a "not-for-profit civic institution in Chicago."

Benson was charged with stealing $33,014 in a one-count information, and she is set to be arraigned in front of U.S. District Judge James Zagel on Dec. 22. The document said Benson worked for the museum from Sept. 29, 2003 until April 9, 2014.

A spokeswoman for the Field said the museum couldn't comment, pending review of the charges. It revealed the $903,284 theft in its 2014 Form 990 filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

"The employee was signing members up, pocketing the cash and then giving them a temporary member card without putting the payment in the system," Ray DeThorne, the museum's chief marketing officer, said last week.

The theft was uncovered in April 2014 as the museum underwent restructuring and noticed missing cash from the membership department, he said.

"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 said.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2015. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)