Michael Maurello, a former Artwork Institute of Chicago (AIC) worker who was accused of embezzling $2m from the museum between 2007 and 2020, has pleaded responsible to the fees introduced in opposition to him.
He can be sentenced on 14 September and faces as much as 20 years in jail, the Chicago Tribune reported. He was additionally ordered to pay the AIC a restitution amounting to simply over $2.3m, and may face an extra $250,000 high quality.
Maurello’s scheme was first uncovered in 2019, after a overview of monetary procedures on the museum unearthed “uncommon account exercise”. In 2020, an assistant controller on the museum requested Maurello, a payroll supervisor on the AIC, about an uncommon switch. Maurello falsely claimed it had been a system check, falsifying a payroll report back to cowl his tracks. The museum subsequently terminated Maurello for trigger and turned the problem over to regulation enforcement.
The AIC has since “carried out extra controls and procedures to assist detect and forestall any future malfeasance”; funds misplaced via Maurello’s embezzling scheme can be recovered via insurance coverage.