When a person entrusts their property or money to you, the law requires you to use that property or money as the owner desires. It would be a serious crime if you used the property or money for personal gain, an offense called embezzlement. California has some of the gravest embezzlement laws in the United States. A sentence for the same attracts a lengthy prison term and hefty fines. You are also likely to face non-criminal consequences like a ban from holding a public office and a damaging criminal record. Therefore, if you’re charged with embezzlement in Fresno today, talk to us at California Criminal Lawyer Group. Our experienced criminal lawyers will advise and guide you through the legal process until you obtain a favorable case outcome.
Legal Meaning of Embezzlement under California Law
California laws are pretty strict when it comes to the handling of someone else’s property. Sometimes people give personal property away for a predetermined period, and other times they leave their property under the care of someone else. For instance, a retail shop owner may not find the time to manage the business if they have another job. The shop owner might also need other people to help them run the business. In that case, the law binds the hired manager or employees to take care of that property and not unlawfully use it for their gain.
Embezzlement doesn’t have a straightforward definition. It could mean a lot of things to different people, depending on the circumstances. That is why it is necessary to understand the legal meaning if you’re charged with embezzlement. In California, the law that prohibits embezzlement is under PC 503. That law defines embezzlement using the following elements:
- That another person entrusted their property or money to you (defendant).
- The person did this out of their trust for you.
- You fraudulently misappropriated or used the property/money for individual gain.
- You acted so intending to deny its owner of the property’s use or benefit.
From the legal definition, it becomes a serious crime if you fraudulently took or used another person’s property that they trusted in your care. Note that the judge will not want to know if the property’s owner requested you to restore their property. Thus, you cannot use as a defense that you were waiting for the owner to ask for their property back.
A few aspects of this definition might require a bit of clarification to ensure that you understand precisely what it means to embezzle someone else’s property and how severe your charges could be.
Property Entrusted to You
When a person entrusts their property to you, it shows that you have a kind of relationship based on trust. Thus, the court will require the prosecutor to prove this relationship between you and your victim. For instance, the victim might have been your employer. Employers who leave the running and management of their businesses in the hands of their employees do so out of trust.
Also, the victim might have been a visitor who left you their car as the valet to park for them. Without the owner’s consent, you can be charged for embezzlement if you used that car to run personal errands.
Note that not all relationships between employers or employees are based on trust. An employer may enter into a trusting relationship with only one or two employees in a company, for instance, the manager or accountant.
The simple detail that you were an employee doesn’t mean that you had a relationship of trust with your employer. The prosecutor requires concrete evidence that your employer entrusted their property to you and that you breached that trust by using the said property for personal gain. Therefore, if you were only a regular employee and not one of the most trusted in your place of work, you could face other theft charges and not embezzlement charges if you took or used your employer’s property without their authorization.
Fraudulent Use of Another’s Property
California embezzlement requires you to have fraudulently used or diverted another person’s property for personal gain. As used under this law, fraud means either:
- Taking undue advantage over another person.
- Causing another person to suffer a loss after breaching a duty of trust or confidence.
Example: Jimmy is the most trusted person in his place of work. Jimmy’s employer frequently goes out of town for business and leaves Jimmy to take care of the business, other employees, and everything else. However, Jimmy takes advantage of that trust to use company money for personal gain instead of using the money to cater to the company’s needs. In this case, Jimmy is taking undue advantage of his employer. Eventually, he will cause the company to incur a financial loss because of a breach of the trust and confidence his boss has in him.
The Intent to Deprive the Owner of Their Property or its Value
The prosecutor must also prove in court that you intended to deny its owner the use of their property or the property’s value. The problem prosecutors face in issues like these is proving a person’s intent. A prosecutor cannot tell for sure what intention you had when you acted the way you did. But the prosecutor can use specific indications to prove intent. For example, if you spent money entrusted to you on personal needs, even after knowing that you had no means or paying back the money, it could indicate that you intended to deprive the owner of the money completely.
In this case, intent can be temporary or permanent. For instance, taking an office computer home to use for a few weeks before your boss comes back to the country can satisfy the elements of embezzlement even if you didn’t intend to keep the computer permanently. The prosecutor will only have to prove in court that you took advantage of your boss’s absence to take a property entrusted to you without your boss’s consent.
Remember that embezzlement charges will still hold even if you intended to give back the embezzled property. In the example above, you could still be guilty of embezzlement even if you intended to bring the computer back to the office before your boss’ arrival back to the country. However, the court could be a little lenient if you took the property back before the prosecutor filed embezzlement charges against you.
Thus, California embezzlement law can be a little complicated to understand if you work alone. The help of a competent criminal lawyer could make things easier for you. Your attorney will also prepare a solid defense to compel the court to reduce or dismiss your charges.
Possible Legal Strategies to Fight Charges for California Embezzlement
Embezzlement is not a straightforward offense. You can commit the offense in several ways. Thus, it might be challenging to know for sure if you’ve committed a crime or not. Some innocent actions could turn into criminal acts and cause you to face severe criminal consequences like time in jail and hefty penalties. But the help of an experienced attorney could change the outcome of your vase. Fortunately, your lawyer can use different legal strategies to fight your charges in court and compel the judge to reduce or dismiss your charges. The legal strategy that could fit your case are:
No Fraudulent Intent
From its legal definition, embezzlement occurs when you fraudulently convert a property entrusted to you by another person for personal gain. In this case, fraud would arise if you took undue advantage of the property’s owner or caused the owner to suffer a loss through breach of trust or confidence. If you didn’t act fraudulently, then the judge may not find you guilty as charged.
An experienced criminal attorney would know how to argue in your favor to convince the jury that your actions were not fraudulent. If this works, the judge might reduce or drop your charges, depending on the circumstances of your case.
You Believed that You Had a Right To That Property
An innocent action of taking something you believe you had a right to can be termed fraudulent and cause you to face serious embezzlement charges. If for sure you had the right to that property, or you were a part-owner of that property, the court might not find you guilty of your charges.
Example: Stevan works in a cosmetic shop that his mum’s boyfriend, Sam, runs. Since the beginning of their working relationship, Sam has always hinted to Stevan and other employees that Stevan is an equal partner in the business. One day, Stevan’s car breaks, and since he was working a night shift, he decides to use the business’ van to drive home from work without filling in the required paperwork. Sam is infuriated by this and accuses Stevan of embezzlement.
In this case, Stevan has always known and felt like an equal partner in the business. He might not be guilty Under PC 503 even if the basis of his good faith was based on a mistaken belief.
No Intent to Deprive
Embezzlement charges will not be complete if they lack a defendant's intent to deprive the property owner of the use or value of the property in question. If you acted the way you did without intending to deny the alleged victim, the court might not find you guilty as charged. For example, if you jokingly took something from the office to see the reaction of the manager or colleagues. Or you moved the property from its usual location to another location for a reason. In this case, your intention was not to deny its owner of the property.
Insufficient Evidence
Prosecutors usually have a hard time providing embezzlement cases. People who fraudulently divert other people’s property for their gain do not leave evidence because they do not want the police to catch them. In a case like that, it takes the police a lot of time and hard work to unravel the issue and find sufficient evidence to support the claim. However, the law requires the prosecutors to prove all elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt for the offender to be found guilty as charged. Without enough evidence, this may be difficult for the prosecutor. If the prosecutor doesn't have enough evidence against you, your attorney can take advantage of that to have the court dismiss the case.
You Acted Under Duress
Sometimes the junior staff is pressured to please their seniors lest they lose their jobs or face disciplinary action. That could be what happened to you. You might have been under pressure to embezzle company property or money, and you acted so for fear of intimidation or losing your job. An experienced attorney will conduct an in-depth investigation into your case to unravel precisely what happened. If you acted under duress, the court might be lenient enough to drop or reduce your charges.
The Police Entrapped You
Sometimes the police could make an innocent person commit a crime the person would not have committed under different circumstances. You could cite entrapment if, during the investigation, you were made to fraudulently take and keep or use money or property that was entrusted to you. Entrapment is a widely used defense strategy in issues like this. However, your attorney will have to prove in court why you feel that you were entrapped and not acted out of your own free will.
You Repaid Embezzled Funds
You are still guilty of embezzlement even if you agreed to pay back or return the embezzled funds or property. However, the court might be a little lenient if you repaid or returned the funds or property before the prosecutor filed charges against you in court. As previously mentioned, planning to pay back is not enough defense to embezzlement charges. But if you had paid back in full, you may not be guilty of the underlying charges.
Punishment for a California Embezzlement Sentence
Embezzlement is charged as petty theft or grand theft in California, depending on the value of the embezzled property. You could receive more penalties if there are aggravating factors in your case.
You could receive punishment for grand theft if the value of the embezzled property were more than $950, or the property was a gun or automobile. If the prosecutor files grand theft charges against you for embezzlement, the offense is a wobbler. It means that the prosecutor has total discretion to prosecute it as a misdemeanor or felony.
If you receive misdemeanor charges for grand theft embezzlement, you could be sent to jail for one year after conviction. A felony conviction is punishable by a maximum of three years in prison.
On the other hand, embezzlement of property valued at $950 or less is prosecuted as petty theft in California. Petty theft is generally a misdemeanor offense and could be punished by six months of incarceration.
In addition to criminal consequences, a sentence for embezzlement comes with other consequences you should be aware of. For instance, it could impact your immigration status if you’re a non-citizen. Certain types of criminal convictions could cause non-citizens to face deportation or be marked as inadmissible in California. Among them is aggravated felony. It means that if you’re convicted of a grand theft felony, and the facts of your case reveal that your case had aggravating factors, you could face deportation if you already live in the United States or are marked inadmissible into the country.
An aggravated felony charge for embezzlement could occur if you’re charged with two or more felonies involving fraud or embezzlement, and the combination results in a loss of over $100,000. It could also occur if the victim of the offense were an elder or dependent person. For example, if you embezzle the property belonging to an elderly relative you care for or a person with physical or mental disability, you could be charged with aggravated grand theft.
An aggravated felony conviction for embezzlement is punishable by adding five years to the punishment for a felony grand theft conviction.
A sentence for embezzlement in California could also impact your rights to possess or buy a gun. California has stringent gun laws, which don’t allow particular residents to keep or buy a firearm. For instance, a convicted felon is not permitted by law to purchase or own a gun in the state. It means that if you are convicted of a grand theft felony, the conviction will affect your gun rights. If you already own a gun, you might be required to surrender it after the sentence.
Expungement of Your Criminal Conviction Record
A criminal conviction affects your life in so many ways. Other than the criminal consequences of a conviction discussed above, various aspects of your life could be affected by a sentence. For instance, you might face challenges when looking for suitable employment if there is a criminal conviction on your record. Employers always conduct background checks on potential employees. Most of the time, they make hiring decisions based on the findings of these background checks.
Thus, California grants convicted persons a right to petition the court to expunge a criminal conviction from their criminal history to avoid negative consequences like those. If there’s an embezzlement conviction on your criminal record, you can petition the same court where the conviction occurred to expunge a criminal record and all the penalties and disabilities that came with the sentence. However, the court can only grant your request if you’ve completed jail/prison time or probation (whichever is applicable).
Once a judge expunges the conviction, you will only be required to admit that particular record when applying for a government job. Employers are not allowed by law to discriminate against you based on your past criminal record.
California Offenses Related to Embezzlement
California law has certain offenses that are closely related to embezzlement. Some of the crimes are prosecuted together with embezzlement, while others are charged in its place. The most common of them are:
Misappropriating Public Funds
The law against misappropriating public funds in California is under PC 424. You could be charged under this law if you stole or diverted funds entrusted to you for improper use as a public officer or trustee of public funds. The people likely to face charges under California PC 424 are local and state public officials or anyone controlling government funds.
You could misappropriate public funds if you diverted the money for your personal use or use by another person without authorization.
Here are the elements of this offense that the prosecutor must prove for the court to find you guilty under this law:
- You were a local or state official or the person charged with the safekeeping, receipt, disbursement, or transfer of public funds at the time of the offense.
- You appropriated public funds for your use or use by another person without authorization.
- You did so knowing that the law prohibited misappropriation of public funds or with criminal negligence in not finding out if you had the legal authority to misappropriate public money.
A sentence for this offense is a felony and could be punished by two, three, or four years of imprisonment and/or a maximum penalty of $10,000.
California embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds are closely related, only differing in the source of embezzled or misappropriated money. Embezzlement mainly refers to private property or funds, while PC 424 applies to public property or funds.
Find a Reliable Criminal Attorney Near Me
Criminal charges for California embezzlement are pretty severe. Thus, it’s advisable to hire a competent criminal lawyer to help you go through the criminal justice system if you’re charged in Fresno, CA. Your lawyer will advise you on what to do and not do and develop a strong defense against the charges you face. With the right legal help, you might avoid a conviction and its consequences. At California Criminal Lawyer Group, our team will walk with you through the legal process until you obtain a fair outcome of the case. Call us at 559-712-8377, and let’s study your case details to devise a way forward.
