Last Friday, a 54-year-old unnamed woman was sentenced to prison for three years and seven months and fined 3,000 Swiss francs for having pocketed around one million francs (around $1.1 million) over many years from her employer. The injured party is the renowned Fondation Beyeler in Riehen near Basel – one of the most visited museums in Switzerland. The Foundation acted as a private plaintiff and demanded - and received - damages for 899,421 Swiss francs plus 5 percent interest.
The 54-year-old had been employed by the Fondation Beyeler through a service provider since 2008. She started as an assistant and moved on to managing the team of cashiers after two years. She began sneaking money past the cash register system already in the first year. She first pocketed three-digit sums and then four-digit sums, using various tricks, including selling tickets without registering the sales and even using the cash register codes of her colleagues to cancel tickets without being discovered.
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As of last Wednesday, she was tried before a criminal court and finally charged with embezzlement. As for the motive for the crime, the public prosecutor's office mentioned that her "desires began to exceed the financial possibilities", as SFR reported. The money was spent mainly on expensive clothes and luxurious trips. The verdict can still be appealed.
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