[MSN] $200,000 missing from Bellevue Arts Museum

[Museum Security Network Mailing list]

$200,000 missing from Bellevue Arts Museum
The Associated Press
May, 23, 2007

A former employee of the Bellevue Arts Museum has come under scrutiny after $200,000 was found missing from museum accounts.

Michael Monroe, executive director of the crafts museum, would not specify when the money went missing of for how long.

"The discovery (of the missing money) is recent," Monroe told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "but the (theft) occurred over a period of time."

Monroe said the museum has hired a forensic auditor as well as a lawyer to safeguard its interests.

He told the museum's 2,000 members of the missing money in letter sent Friday. He said that "discrepancies in our financial accounts revealed that our chief financial officer embezzled museum funds."

The employee, who has not been identified, was "immediately removed" and "all financial records were secured," Monroe wrote.

Monroe wouldn't say whether he'd filed a police report. Bellevue police spokesman Greg Grannis was unable to locate one.

The museum, formerly known as the Bellevue Art Museum, closed its doors in October 2003 amid financial troubles. It reopened in 2005 as the Bellevue Arts Museum.

Its annual budget this year is $3 million, Monroe said, slightly up from last year's $2.6 million.

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/