Janet Ellinger, the former chief financial officer of the Bellevue Arts Museum was charged November 20th with 38 counts of felony theft for stealing what she admitted to be $300,000 during her tenure at the Museum.
She worked for the Bellevue Arts Museum two years before the allegations came to light in spring of 2006. The Seattle Times reported that prosecutors say she stole a majority of the money by writing herself checks and covering up the entries in the museum’s financial ledger.
If convicted she will face a standard sentence of about 3 1/2 – 5 years.
This all comes at a very hard time for the Bellevue Arts Museum after they were closed for two years, and still struggle with low attendance and lack of hype in the community.
