Mr. Ferragut's High-Profile Cases Have Been Featured On:
Get Your Free Case Evaluation Now
Time Is Of The Essence – Hiring An Embezzlement Defense Attorney in Queen Creek, AZ
Getting charged with embezzlement is a very serious issue and definitely one in which you would want to hire an Embezzlement Defense Attorney in Queen Creek, AZ. From a lawful viewpoint if you are actually guilty, you might end up with penalties and/or time in jail or prison, depending on how significant the criminal activity is, judged by the amount of the theft. From an individual point of view, there are numerous problems that will certainly have to be handled if you are found guilty. The largest individual obstacles you will possibly encounter are that you might seem like you let yourself down in addition to people around you. Your friends and family might feel bad for you, or they might really feel extremely dissatisfied in you as well as might desire to desert the connection with you, momentarily or perhaps permanently.
However, if you really are innocent or there are mitigating circumstances (such as somebody made you do it) you absolutely require to have an excellent defense case. Only the best Embezzlement Defense Attorney in Queen Creek, AZ can make that defense for you. Here we will review what embezzlement is, exactly how you can be charged with it, whether it is a felony in Arizona, and also how you can prevent the charge.
For your personal knowledge, here is a page from the Arizona court system with a lot of useful information about what to expect in a criminal trial.
What is Embezzlement?
Embezzlement is usually considered to be the abuse of or the misuse of someone’s position or capacity in a trust setting that handles funds and other assets apart from their own. For example, if you are a controller or a bookkeeper in a firm or a charity, you remain in a placement that takes care of, either in a direct manner or indirectly, the individual’s or company entity’s funds as well as other properties. Even if you market things like candy or other services or products for someone else and take care of the cash directly, you remain in a setting of dealing with another individual’s or entity’s cash.
That cash comes from the person or entity that you are holding it or handling it for. Additionally, there are certain guidelines, both spoken as well as unmentioned, that you as the caretaker of those properties (which could be cash or items, as an example) that you need to comply with.
What is Embezzlement (continued)
Let’s say that you are working with the Girl Scouts selling cookies and you have been provided 5 box cases of Girls Scout cookies to market. You sell 2.5 cases of them in the time period that’s allotted to market them, which implies you have the cash for the 2.5 situations you marketed and you still have 2.5 cases of them in your possession. You give back all the cash you accumulated plus all of the added boxes left over to your contact person for the Girl Scouts. Everything is great because you have actually not abused any of the funds or products.
Now, consider you were having a hard time financially as well as you state in your mind “I will just use a bit of that money and after that give it back when it is time. I will be able to get it by that time.” Is that a bad thing? Yes, it definitely is! This is an instance of embezzlement. You had been in a placement of trust and also a caretaker for assets that do not belong to your person. For that reason, this misdirection of funds is considered to be embezzlement. If you take any one of those properties for individual usage ‘at any time’ you are utilizing cash that does not belong to you. Even if you intended on returning it when it was due – you still committed the act. This is never ever a positive suggestion, not even if you do pay the money back in a timely manner. You must in any way possible and at all times keep that money totally away from your personal cash. Co-mingling of money like that is simply not a good idea to do.
Bringing that to a business level, there are much more ways to abuse or misuse funds or possessions in a business, non-profit, or government entity setting. This kind of issue happens more regularly than you would think, and some of these instances come to be high profile (this means they are covered by one or more news sources such as radio , television, news papers, and also more). Embezzlement on a business or non-profit degree indicates that an individual has actually taken possessions (usually money or it can likewise be products or services) and also used them, without authority, for individual advantage. Lot of times these funds are misdirected to a personal account, however a lot more sophisticated embezzlement schemes additionally exist.
Embezzlement can likewise be executed by more than a single person, specifically from a preparation viewpoint. No matter how many individuals are included, all of them are doing something illegal and can be charged with a criminal offense.
Just How Can I Get Charged with Embezzlement and Would I Need an Embezzlement Defense Attorney in Queen Creek, AZ?
You can be charged and also need an Embezzlement Defense Attorney in Queen Creek, AZ if you are under suspicion of doing any kind of deceptive task with some other person’s or entity’s funds that have actually been misdirected and also made use of for your individual use. It doesn’t matter if you utilized them to aid a friend or relative or you personally profited. You utilized those assets illegally.
Many times it can take years before charges are brought up, specifically in cases where a controller or a bookkeeper had straight access to assets as well as the business was lax about having their records examined by a 3rd party regularly. What occurs in this instance many times is the embezzler starts gradually thieving a few bits of cash out each time. After that due to the fact that they have not been found out yet, greed can set in so they begin getting even more cash. Their manager at some point catch on as well as start to investigate. They will probably employ an auditor to see what’s taking place and the auditor hopefully quickly locates the trail of theft that leads back to the individual that did it. This process can take years because of exactly how this type of criminal offense can play out. All of it simply depends on the scenarios of the burglary, the financial controls of the firm, as well as when and if the company’s officers discover the potential losses they are experiencing.
When this occurs, detectives are called, they collect each piece of the truths that they can, as well as issue a warrant for the apprehension of the person or individuals associated with the crime. Then you will definitely want to call the best and top rated Queen Creek, AZ Embezzlement Defense Attorney.
Here is a page with many of our Case Results. Please feel free to take a look at all of the successful victories we have had for our clients over the years.
Ready to talk? Just call us today at 602-324-5300. The consultation is free, and you will discover important concepts that will help you defend the charges against you.
Is Embezzlement a Felony in Arizona?
This is a really good inquiry. Due to the nature of the criminal offense, you could think that it is in all cases. Nevertheless, there are situations that it is just a misdemeanor in Arizona. However, even a misdemeanor can result in fines as well as jail time, although it will not bring about a felony record. Embezzlement in Arizona will be a misdemeanor if the value of the burglary is under $1,000, which can have a punishment of as much as 6 months in jail. Any kind of embezzlement or theft quantities higher than that will be a felony if convicted, the class of which is determined by the amount of the burglary. Felony charges can range anywhere between a Class 6 felony for $1,000 to $2,000 in theft of items, with consequences of approximately 2 years behind bars (that’s prison, not jail) to a Class 2 felony for more than $25,000 of theft of assets. The effects for that are between 3 and 12.5 years in prison.
How Can I Defend Myself Against an Embezzlement case?
There are numerous reasons that individuals do things they do, and also there are times when it resembles somebody is doing something illegal as well as they are accused of that in their case, yet the intent or actual scenario was entirely different.
Take the Girl Scouts instance from above. Let’s state you made use of the money to acquire pizza for the local Scouts and also you were allowed to do so from someone higher in GSA. After that something happens to that individual and someone new has to take over but was uninformed of the permission. They call the law and charge you for stealing. Yet no theft really happened due to the fact that you utilized it for the girls, and you had permission, despite the fact that the proper interaction was not there. In this scenario, your case would probably be dropped since there was no intent to misuse or abuse the funds as well as there was permission to utilize them for the purpose they were.
There are various other potential legit defenses against embezzlement too, such as the problem pointed out over where another person was forcing the activities upon the individual that was in the position of financial responsibility. All of these are tackled on a case by case basis, and you have to have a really solid protection on your side in order to beat costs like these. If all the evidence points to you and you were in that setting of financial responsibility, only the greatest criminal defense by the most experienced and top rated Embezzlement Defense Attorney in Queen Creek, AZ can aid you with your your rights in court.