Former Non-Profit Finance Director Gets 30 Months For Embezzling Funds, Staff Salary

Former Non-Profit Finance Director Gets 30 Months For Embezzling Funds, Staff Salary

KEY POINTS

  • Chris Benavides embezzled more than $650,000 from the La Jolla Music Society: Authorities
  • Officials said Benavides used organization funds to pay for his mortgage
  • They said Benavides’ embezzlement “became more and more sophisticated” over the years

The former finance director of non-profit La Jolla Music Society has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for embezzling staff salary increases over a period of 10 years, the Department of Justice (DoJ) said. The 52-year-old pleaded to a count of wire fraud earlier this year.

In a press release published Thursday, the Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of California said Chris Benavides embezzled more than $650,000 from the La Jolla Music Society, a non-profit based in La Jolla, California. The press release noted that while overseeing the organization’s budgeting process and human resources, Benavides “was stealing for himself an average of about $65,000 per year.”