Mr. Ferragut's High-Profile Cases Have Been Featured On:
Get Your Free Case Evaluation Now
Time Is Of The Essence – Hiring An Embezzlement Lawyer in Navajo County, AZ
Getting charged with embezzlement is an extremely serious concern and definitely one in which you would want to hire an Embezzlement Lawyer in Navajo County, AZ. From a lawful perspective if you are found guilty, you could end up with penalties and/or time in jail or prison, depending upon exactly how serious the criminal offense is, evaluated by the amount of the things or money stolen. From a personal standpoint, there are several concerns that will have to be dealt with if you are found to be guilty. The greatest personal difficulties you will probably deal with are that you may feel like you allow yourself down as well as people around you. Your family and friends may feel bad for you, or they might really feel exceptionally disappointed in you and also might desire to abandon the relationship with you, temporarily or even permanently.
But, if you really are blameless or there are mitigating situations (such as a person made you do it) you certainly need to have a tight defense case. Only a terrific Embezzlement Lawyer in Navajo County, AZ can make that defense case for you. Here we will discuss what embezzlement is, just how you can get charged with it, whether it is a felony in Arizona, as well as how you can prevent the case.
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 typically considered to be the abuse of or the misuse of a person’s placement or capability in a trust setting that handles funds and also various other assets apart from their personal assets. As an example, if you are a controller or a bookkeeper in a company or a charity, you are in a placement that manages, either directly or indirectly, the individual’s or organizational entity’s funds as well as various other assets. Even if you sell things such as candy or other services or products for another person and take care of the money directly, you are in a placement of handling another individual’s or entity’s money.
That money comes from the individual or entity that you are holding it or handling it for. Plus, there are particular standards, both spoken and also unspoken, that you as the caregiver of those properties (which could be money or products, for example) that need to be adhered to.
What is Embezzlement (continued)
Let’s state for example that you are helping with the Girl Scouts marketing cookies and you have been given 5 box cases of Girls Scout cookies to market. You sell 2.5 box cases of them in the time duration that’s allotted to offer them, which indicates you have the cash for the 2.5 cases you marketed and you still have 2.5 box cases in your possession. You give back all of the cash you accumulated plus all of the added boxes left over to your contact person for the Girl Scouts. All is great since you have actually not abused any of the funds or products.
Now, consider you are having a hard time monetarily and you state in your mind “I will just use a little of that cash and then pay it back when it is time. I probably would be able to get it by that time.” Is that a poor thing to do? Yes, it absolutely is! This is an instance of embezzlement. You had been in a setting of trust and a caregiver for possessions that do not belong to you. Consequently, this misdirection of funds is considered to be embezzlement. If you take any one of those assets for individual use ‘at any time’ you are making use of money that is not yours to use. Even if you intended on returning it when it was due – you still committed the act. This is never ever a positive concept, not even if you do pay the cash back on time. You need to at all times keep that cash entirely away from your individual cash. Co-mingling of funds like that is simply not a good thing to do.
Bringing that to a company level, there are much more methods to abuse or misuse funds or assets in a company, charitable, or federal, state, or local government entity setup. This kind of issue happens more regularly than you would certainly assume, as well as some of these situations end up being high profile (meaning they are covered by potentially several news sources such as radio stations, TV, newspapers, as well as much more). Embezzlement on a business or charitable degree means that a person has taken possessions (generally money but it can also be products or services) and used them, without authority, for personal benefit. Lot of times these funds are misdirected to a personal account, yet a lot more elaborate embezzlement plans additionally exist.
Embezzlement can additionally be performed by more than one person, especially from a planning point of view. No matter the amount of individuals are in the process, all of them are doing something illegal as well as can be charged with a crime.
Exactly How Can I Become Charged with Embezzlement and Would I Need an Embezzlement Lawyer in Navajo County, AZ?
You can be charged as well as call for an Embezzlement Lawyer in Navajo County, AZ if you are on trial of doing any type of fraudulent activity with another individual’s or entity’s funds that have been misdirected and utilized for your own individual usage. It doesn’t matter if you used them to help a good friend or loved one or you personally profited. You utilized the assets unlawfully.
Lot of times it can take years before charges are raised, especially in cases where a controller or a book keeper had direct accessibility to assets as well as the company was lax about having their records examined by a 3rd party on a regular basis. What takes place in this case often times is the embezzler begins gradually taking a few bits of cash out at once. After that due to the fact that they have not been found out yet, greed can set in and they start getting even more money. Their manager ultimately catch on as well as begin to explore the possible issue. They will probably employ an auditor to see what’s taking place as well as the auditor hopefully quickly locates the path of stolen cash or goods that leads back to the individual that did it. This process can take years due to just how this kind of criminal activity can play out. It all simply depends on the conditions of the theft, the financial controls of the firm, and when and if the business’s officers are able to determine the possible losses they are experiencing.
When this happens, police officers are called in, they gather each piece of the facts that they can, and issue a warrant for the apprehension of the person or people involved in the criminal offense. Then you will definitely want to call the best and top rated Navajo County, AZ Embezzlement Lawyer.
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 ideas that will help you defend the charges against you.
Is Embezzlement a Felony in Arizona?
This is a terrific question. Due to the nature of the crime, you could believe that it is in all cases. Nonetheless, there are instances that it is just a misdemeanor in Arizona. Yet, even a misdemeanor can result in fines and also jail time, although it will certainly not cause a felon record. Embezzlement in Arizona will certainly be a misdemeanor if the value of the burglary is $1,000 or less, which might have a punishment of as much as 6 months in jail. Any type of embezzlement or burglary quantities more than that will certainly be a felony if convicted, the class of which is identified by the quantity of the theft. Felony cases can vary anywhere between a Class 6 felony for $1,000 to $2,000 in theft of products, with repercussions of as much as 2 years behind bars (that’s prison, not jail) to a Class 2 felony for greater than $25,000 of burglary of property. The consequences for that are in between 3 and 12.5 years in a prison.
How Can I Defend Myself Against an Embezzlement charge?
There are numerous reasons that individuals do things they do, as well as there are times when it appears like someone is doing something illegal as well as they are implicated of that in their arrest, however the intent or actual situation was completely different.
Let’s take the Girl Scouts example from above. Let’s state you used the cash to purchase pizza for the area Troop and also you were authorized to do so from a person higher in GSA. After that something happens to that individual and a new person has to take over yet was unaware of the consent. They call the police department and charge you for theft. However no burglary in fact happened because you appropriately utilized it for the girls, and you had authorization, even though the proper communication was missing. In this circumstance, your charges would probably be dismissed because there was no intent to misuse or abuse the funds and also there was permission to use them for the objective they were.
There are other potential legit defenses against embezzlement as well, such as the concern mentioned over where somebody else was requiring the actions upon the person that was in the setting of monetary responsibility. All of these are tackled on a case by case basis, as well as you need to have a very solid defense in your corner in order to beat charges like these. If all the evidence points to you and you also were in that position of financial responsibility, only the greatest defense by the finest and top rated Embezzlement Lawyer in Navajo County, AZ can assist you with your rights in court.