Yet another financial scandal embroiled a student organization this year.

Following the infamous plundering of An Evening With Champions and the less publicized alleged expropriations at the Yearbook and the Krokodilos, the Currier House Committee last fall discovered more than $12,000 missing from its account.

In March, the committee's former treasure, Natalie J. Szekeres '97, was charged with embezzling $7,550 from the organization.

Harvard University Police Detective Dennis M. Maloney said evidence showed checks actually went into the personal accounts of Szekeres.

Or leave in Landover, Md. for a year, Szekeres ignored letters and phone calls from the police over a three month period. She also failed to appear at her March arraignment in Middesex County District Court, provoking police to issue a warrant for her arrest.

"will talk when I'm ready. There will be a time. But this is not it," she told a Crimson reporter at her house.

On March 11, the junior's family returned $12,000 to Harvard, and University Attorney Anne Taylor said Szekeres would not be prosecuted.

As the situation developed, the student at the center of the most recent financial controversy kept a low profile.

Friends and high school teachers expressed shock at the possibility that she may have stolen the money, citing her responsibility and institutional loyalty.

The daughter of a physician and an international businessperson in Holmdel, N.J.--a suburban town of 10,000 that is nationally recognized for its high school--Szekeres did not appear to have any problems or be in need of money, according to friends.

But she may not have been as carefree as she seemed.

One acquaintance said the biology concentrator had told her that she was taking the year off because of poor grades.

And in February, her mother said she and her daughter had not been on speaking terms for some time and that she did not even know why Szekeres was taking the year off.

If charges had been pressed, Szekeres would have faced a maximum punishment of five years in state prison and a $25,000 fine, according to District Attorney Martin F. Murphy.

Szekeres' legal troubles now appear to be over. According to Maloney, the police do not intend to arrest Szekeres if she returns to Cambridge, although the case will remain open until she and her attorney complete the requisite paperwork in court.