| Embezzlement | | | | and aggregates four hundred dollars ($400) or |
| Embezzlement is the crime of stealing funds of | | | | more in any 12 consecutive month period." |
| property of an employer, company, or | | | | Embezzlement is considered grand theft and is |
| government. It may also mean money or assets | | | | usually punished as a felony. Generally, grand theft |
| held in a trust account. It is the illegal transfer or | | | | is usually punishable up to one year in the county |
| money, or property, which is diverted from the | | | | jail or a maximum sentence of 16 months, 2, or 3 |
| employer to the embezzler. The fraudulent intent | | | | years in state prison. The preceding terms are |
| required for embezzlement is the intent to | | | | referred to as the "low, mid, and high." The |
| deprive the owner of the property or where the | | | | California Legislature has stated that the middle |
| property is diverted to the embezzler's own use. | | | | term is the appropriate sentence to give out in a |
| Even where a person intended to eventually | | | | felony case, unless mitigating or aggravating |
| return the property, it is still embezzlement. | | | | circumstances exists which would merit a lower |
| California Penal Code Section 503 reads, | | | | or higher sentence. For example, an aggravating |
| "Embezzlement is the fraudulent appropriation of | | | | circumstance occurs where an embezzlement |
| property by a person to whom it has been | | | | victim is elderly, or dependent, thus justifying the |
| entrusted." | | | | imposition of the high term. An example of a |
| Embezzlement takes many forms. Embezzlement | | | | mitigating circumstance would be where the |
| typically occurs in the employment and corporate | | | | embezzler makes full restitution to the victim, so |
| settings. Examples include a store clerk who takes | | | | long as it is prior to the information being laid |
| money from the register and puts it in their own | | | | down before the magistrate or the grand jury's |
| pocket, or it could mean a bank manager stealing | | | | indictment for embezzlement. It is in the judge's |
| customer deposit receipts and account | | | | discretion to alter the sentencing scheme in light |
| information, and then siphoning bank money into | | | | of the weight of the mitigating circumstances. |
| his own pocket. | | | | However, unless it is specifically precluded by a |
| California Penal Code Section 487 reads: | | | | statute, a judge can sentence a convicted felon |
| "Grand theft is theft committed in any of the | | | | to a grant of probation. Among other things, the |
| following cases: | | | | court may require the defendant, as a term and |
| Where the money, labor, or real or personal | | | | condition of probation, to serve local jail time, pay |
| property is taken by a servant, agent, or | | | | fines, complete community service and pay |
| employee from his or her principal or employer | | | | restitution. |