Austin Criminal Lawyers

Embezzlement

Embezzlement is very unique crime. It is considered to be the act of misusing resources with which you have been entrusted. This means that the individual who commits the crime is trusted with the resources in question. The most popular form of embezzlement occurs in business situations, but it may happen anywhere, among any group of people.

Money is the resource that is most frequently embezzled. A typical scenario is that a large sum of money is given to an individual for a specific purpose. This person then uses the money for something other than its original intent.

Embezzlement is not to be confused with larceny. With embezzlement a conversion must occur, meaning that the resources have been exchanged for something else. In a larceny case, the goods simply have to be relocated. Secondly, the perpetrator must have trespassed while committing the crime in a larceny case. An embezzler did indeed have to right to possess the resources.

Embezzlement was created to fill in the blanks where larceny does not apply. These filings are characterized by the issue of possession. The particular case that instigated the law took place around 1799. A customer of a bank gave a teller money to have deposited into his account. The teller immediately pocketed the money.

Later, the court decided that the teller’s action wasn’t one of larceny because he had legal possession of the money. Had he placed the money in the till first and then stolen it, it would have been larceny because the bank would have owned the money after it was put into the till.

For more information on embezzlement, contact the Austin criminal lawyer, Ian Inglis, by calling 512-472-1950.