Embezzlement

Law Encyclopedia: embezzlement

This wiki article contains information applicable to United States law only.

The fraudulent conversion of another's property by a person who is in a position of trust, such as an agent or employee. Embezzlement is distinguished from swindling in that swindling involves wrongfully obtaining property by a false pretense, such as a lie or trick, at the time the property is transferred, which induces the victim to transfer to the wrongdoer title to the property.

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: embezzlement

Crime of fraudulently appropriating property entrusted to one's care and converting it to one's own use. It occurs when a person gains possession of goods lawfully and then misappropriates them. It thus stands in contrast to larceny, the taking of goods from another without the latter's consent. The most widely adopted embezzlement statutes cover custodians of public funds. Many laws subject public servants to severe penalties, even if funds are lost through improper administration rather than a clear attempt to steal.

Columbia Encyclopedia: embezzlement

Wrongful use, for one's own selfish ends, of the property of another when that property has been legally entrusted to one. Such an act was not larceny at common law because larceny was committed only when property was acquired by a “felonious taking,” i.e., when the act was committed with respect to property that was at the time in the legal possession of the owner. Consequently, unfaithful servants, employees, agents, trustees, or guardians who misappropriated another's property could be sued only in the civil courts, on the grounds that although the defendant had legally come into possession of the property, he had breached his trust by wrongfully misappropriating it to his own use. To remedy this situation statutes were passed in England and the United States that either made embezzlement a distinct crime or enlarged the definition of larceny in such a way as to include all cases of misappropriation of property in the lawful possession of the wrongdoer. In most states of the United States embezzlement is a felony. Under acts of Congress, stealing of letters by postmasters, clerks, and letter carriers is considered embezzlement.

Embezzlement is the fraudulent appropriation by a person to his or her own use of property or money entrusted to that person's care but owned by someone else. For instance, a clerk or cashier can embezzle money from his or her employer, a civil servant can embezzle funds from the treasury, or a pastor can embezzle funds from a church.

Embezzlement differs from larceny in two ways. First, in embezzlement, an actual conversion must occur; second, the original taking must not be trespassory. That is, the embezzler must have had the right to possess the item, and used that position of trust to convert the property. Embezzlement may range from the very minor, involving only a very small amount, to immense, involving very large sums and very sophisticated schemes.

Conversion requires that the theft seriously interfere with the property, rather than just relocate it. As in larceny, the measure is not by the gain to the thief, but the loss to the true owner. Embezzlement was statutorily created to deal with situations where theft could occur while the thief himself was innocent of larceny — typically because of the "lawful possession" element. That is, embezzlement fills in the blanks where larceny cannot.

Embezzlement sometimes involves falsification of records in order to conceal the theft. Embezzlers commonly steal relatively small amounts repeatedly over a long period, although some embezzlers steal one large sum at once. Some very successful embezzlement schemes have continued for many years before being detected due to the skill of the embezzler in concealing the nature of the transactions.

One of the most common methods of embezzlement is to under-report income, and pocket the difference. For example, in 2005, several managers of the service provider Aramark were found to be underreporting profits from a string of vending machine locations in the eastern United States. While the amount stolen from each machine was relatively small, the total amount taken from many machines over a length of time was very large.

Another method is to create a false vendor account, and to supply false bills to the company being embezzled so that the checks that are cut appear completely legitimate. Yet another method is to create phantom employees, who are then paid with payroll checks.

The latter two methods should be uncovered by routine audits, but often aren't if the audit is not sufficiently in-depth, because the paperwork appears to be in order. The first method is easier to detect if all transactions are by check or other instrument, but if many transactions are in cash, it is much more difficult to identify. Employers have developed a number of strategies to deal with this problem. In fact, cash registers were invented just for this reason.