Federal court jury finds Olympia non-profit executive guilty of wire fraud
A former executive director of an Olympia-based victim advocacy organization has been convicted of wire fraud in federal court.
A jury found Cody Benson, 51, guilty of two out of three counts of wire fraud Tuesday after a six-day jury trial in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
Benson served as executive director for Washington Coalition of Crime Victim Advocates, a non-profit that was funded by a grant administered by the Washington State Attorney’s General Office. The WCCVA was created in 1989 to provide training and support services to crime victim advocates in the state.
Federal prosecutors accused Benson of submitting false invoices for reimbursement to the Attorney General’s Office between 2015 and 2017, according to a news release from U.S. Department of Justice. These invoices were reportedly for training events that did not occur and supplies that were never purchased.
Jurors found Benson guilty of submitting false invoices for $63,794 in supplies and $66,400 for trainings, according to court records. She was found not guilty of seeking $1,348 for mileage reimbursement in 2017.
During the trial, prosecutors alleged WCCVA received almost $180,000 from Benson’s false invoices and she obtained about $257,000 in net salary and other benefits, per the news release.
In a trial brief, prosecutors argued WCCVA provided little training to crime-victim advocates under Benson’s leadership.
“Evidence will show that Benson created the impression that WCCVA was functioning as normal when, in reality, its activities were slowing to a halt,” prosecutors said in the brief. “Benson was largely absent from her job in part because she was living overseas, a fact that she hid from the Attorney General’s Office.”
Additionally, prosecutors alleged Benson failed to keep adequate records of WCCVA activities or secure third-party audits of the non-profit, a requirement of their contract with the Attorney General’s Office.
Attorneys Colin Fieman and Mukund Rathi defended Benson. In a trial brief, they argued the allegedly false invoices were for future goods and services that were canceled after various finance and scheduling issues.
They said WCCVA received a set amount of grant funding each year and applied any unspent funds to other agency expenses. The only money obtained by alleged fraud, they argued, was Benson’s compensation.
“Given that evidence, the charges in this case are highly unusual, factually and legally untenable and an overreach by the federal government,” the attorney’s said in the brief.
Benson reportedly moved to Italy in 2016, about three years after becoming executive director for WCCVA. Yet, prosecutors alleged she submitted an expense voucher for in-state travel expenses in 2017.
Court records indicate WCCVA closed in 2019. In the non-profit’s final years, it reportedly had just two employees: Benson and her son.
In the 2021 indictment, prosecutors accused Benson of a fourth count of wire fraud. That charge alleges Benson lied about where she lived to secure unemployment benefits after losing her job at WCCVA.
That count was severed from the other three and trial for it is still pending, court records show.
The Washington State Attorney General’s Office began investigating WCCVA in early 2018 after becoming concerned about the non-profit’s performance, according to court records.
The news release says Benson returned just over $50,000 to the state.
The Federal Bureau of Investigations investigated Benson. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Philip Kopczynski and Yunah Chung prosecuted the case.
Judge Benjamin H. Settle scheduled Benson’s sentencing hearing for April 8.
