April 06, 2010
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News: RBI Employee Takes $100,000 Gets Nothing
A long time employee of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's School of Architecture was fired for racking up thousands of dollars in personal credit card transactions. Christine Dickson, former Business Coordinator for the institute charged over $100,000 on the schools purchasing credit card including $82,000 in cash advances. The charges were discovered while Dickson was off work to serve jury duty. Dickson allegedly made the credit card transactions over a 14 month period which in addition to the cash advances, included $15,000 in car rental fees, $4,900 for cruise and airline travel, and $1,500 in charges to Amazon.com. The theft occurred between August 31, 2008 and November 13, 2009. RPI employees with responsibilities like those Dickson had are often issued purchasing cards.
In an interview with the Times Union, Dickson acknowledged that she did use the school's credit card for personal expenses. However, she noted that the school had exaggerated the amount. Dale Masten, Dickson's supervisor at the school, said her creative scheme to hide the credit card charges was discovered while she served an extended term of jury duty for a murder trial. During that time period, certain emails and purchase authorizations came across Masten's desk making him suspicious of Dickson's card abuse. Based on this documentation, Masten suspended Dickson's card and reported the alleged abuse to the authorities.
Dickson said that she hasn't been told whether or not the school is continuing to pursue pressing charges for the credit card abuse, but at this time, no criminal charges have been filed. The Troy Police Department said the investigation is ongoing. The institute also terminated Masten for failure to ensure financial oversight of the institute's money. Masten a 20 year employee and graduate of the school was awarded the highest honor presented by the institute, Pillar of Rensselaer, in 2003. Her firing was a shock. Meanwhile Dickson has been working with the school on a repayment plan.