By: Aumrita Savdharia
For the past 13 years, Michael Maurello has been involved in an embezzlement scheme at the Art Institute of Chicago. As the payroll manager, Maurello had access to the institute’s financial records and used this information to transfer money to his account under the guise of making monthly payments to employees. The fraud started in 2007, but it was not discovered until 2019 due to the convincing nature of the falsified financial statements. After the institute confronted Maurello, he denied the claims and said that the transactions were a “test of the system”. Over the years, Maurello was able to steal a little over 2 million dollars. Due his involvement in the bank and wire fraud, Maurello will be facing 100+ years in prison after conviction. Although the institute said they would dedicate more resources to anti-fraud systems, this fraud raises greater questions in the art community because of the lack of accountability in these kinds of museums and institutions. From fraudulent transactions using museum accounts to forging pieces of art, fraud has begun to run rampant in the art world. Although it is unclear what the next steps are, it is clear that we must take action to tackle the issue of fraud.
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