Food52 Exec Stole at Least $270K, Used Company Credit Card

A former Food52 govt, Shannon Muldoon, 38, just lately took a plea deal for making private prices on the corporate bank card — for greater than $270,000.

Muldoon was indicted in August 2024 for one rely of grand larceny within the second diploma, however she will not face jail time; she accepted a plea deal earlier this summer season for 5 years of probation, per an exposé this week from The Cut.

“She principally walked away with the entire garments. And the recollections,” a coworker advised the outlet.

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Muldoon was working Food52’s branded content material arm, Studio 52, and was issued an organization bank card. In response to the report, from 2021 to 2023, she charged tons of of hundreds of {dollars} value of bills, together with Botox, fancy gyms, designer garments, and journey to wellness retreats. There have been extreme prices from the posh clothes web site, Net-a-Porter, regardless of Food52’s coverage of not offering garments for expertise at picture shoots. (Executives discovered of this coverage after the actual fact.)

^{Sophie Nathan, Shannon Muldoon, and Christine Tebcherany attend “Health Junkie” E-book Launch at Longchamp on July 11, 2017, in New York Metropolis. Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan | Getty Photographs}

Nonetheless, Muldoon was retaining the expensing and labeling as much as code, and the software program that tracked worker expense experiences did not catch something, in line with the report. However after a company reorganization in 2022 and Muldoon taking intensive time without work in 2023, colleagues started questioning issues like why producing their movies was so costly and the way Muldoon afforded her way of life, which she was showcasing on Instagram.

“The $270,000 in unauthorized purchases is a really conservative estimate as to Ms. Muldoon’s theft,” the Manhattan DA’s workplace mentioned, in line with court docket paperwork seen by The Lower. “Our investigation confirmed extra unauthorized purchases from different luxurious clothes manufacturers, furnishings firms, and different travel-related prices.”

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Future Commerce factors out that this case highlights a serious failure of company oversight and the way trendy, automated expensing techniques and approval processes can “allow years of unchecked monetary abuse.”

The Lower reported that Muldoon has paid $15,000 in restitution up to now, however may face penalties as much as $262,000, which can be decided in September.

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