Ex-Field Museum worker pleads guilty to embezzlement, disputes amount

An ex-employee charged with embezzling nearly $1 million from the Field Museum pleaded guilty to federal charges Monday. But she claims she stole less than half the amount federal prosecutors claim she pocketed, court records indicate.

Caryn Benson, 38, a former museum clerk, admitted she pocketed money whenever people paid cash for museum memberships or bought drink tickets at museum fundraisers. Benson even concedes she swiped $33,014 in a little over a year, from January 2014 to April 2015. Federal prosecutors pegged the amount Benson stole at $903,284 over seven years, but Benson only admits to taking a total of $410,000, according to a plea agreement entered in federal court Monday.

A federal judge will decide which dollar amount is correct at a sentencing hearing in August, and the half million-dollar difference between the two sides will weigh heavily in the amount of jail time Benson could serve - as well as how much she has to pay back to the museum.

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