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 Santa Cruz County, AZ
Facing a charge of embezzlement is an extremely serious issue and definitely one in which you would want to find an Embezzlement Lawyer in Santa Cruz County, AZ. From a legal standpoint if you are actually guilty, you can wind up with fines and/or jail or prison time, depending upon how significant the criminal activity is, judged by the amount of the theft. From an individual perspective, there are numerous issues that will certainly need to be managed if you are found guilty. The largest individual challenges you will most likely face are that you may seem like you allow yourself down in addition to people you keep company with. Your loved ones might really feel badly for you, or they might feel extremely dissatisfied in you as well as may desire to abandon the connection with you, momentarily or even permanently.
However, if you really are innocent or there are mitigating conditions (such as somebody made you do it) you most definitely need to have a great defense. You need to find a highly experienced Santa Cruz County, AZ Embezzlement Lawyer to make that defense for you. Below we will now discuss what embezzlement is, exactly how you can be charged with it, whether it is a felony in Arizona, as well as how you can prevent the charges.
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 normally considered to be the abuse of or the misuse of a person’s placement or capacity in a trusted position that deals with funds and also various other properties besides their own. As an example, if you are a controller or an accountant in a firm or a charity, you remain in a setting that takes care of, either directly or indirectly, the individual’s or organizational entity’s funds and various other possessions. Even if you offer items like candy or various other products or services for someone else and also handle the money directly, you remain in a placement of taking care of another individual’s or entity’s money.
That cash belongs to the person or entity that you are holding it or managing it for. Plus, there are specific standards, both spoken as well as unspoken, that you as the caregiver of those possessions (which could be money or items, for instance) that you should follow.
What is Embezzlement (continued)
Let’s state for example that you are dealing with the Girl Scouts marketing cookies and you have actually been provided 5 box cases of Girls Scout cookies to market. You offer 2.5 box cases of them in the time period that’s allocated to offer them, which implies you have the money for the 2.5 situations you sold as well as you still have 2.5 cases of them in your possession. You turn in all the cash you gathered plus each of the added boxes left over to your contact for the Girl Scouts. Everything is great because you have not abused any of the funds or items.
Then, consider you were having a hard time monetarily as well as you said to yourself “I will only use a bit of that money and after that pay it back when it is time. I should be able to get it at that time.” Is that a poor thing to do? Yes, it definitely is! This is an example of embezzlement. You had been in a setting of trust and also a caretaker for assets that do not belong to you. Consequently, this misdirection of funds is considered to be embezzlement. If you take any one of those possessions for individual use ‘at any moment’ you are making use of cash that does not belong to you. Even if you intended on returning it when it was due – you still did it. This is never a good suggestion, not even if you do get the money back in a timely manner. You need to at all times maintain that money entirely separate from your individual cash. Co-mingling of funds like that is just not a good idea to do.
Bringing that to a corporate level, there are even more means to abuse or misuse funds or assets in a company, charitable, or government entity setup. This sort of issue takes place more regularly than you would certainly believe, as well as some of these situations end up being high profile (meaning they are covered by one or more news outlets such as radio stations, TV, news papers, and a lot more). Embezzlement on a corporate or non-profit degree suggests that a person has taken properties (normally money but it can additionally be products or services) as well as used them, without authority, for individual gain. Lot of times these funds are misdirected to a personal account, however much more fancy embezzlement plans do exist.
Embezzlement can likewise be accomplished by greater than a single person, particularly from a preparation viewpoint. Regardless of the number of individuals are in the process, every one of them are doing something illegal and can be charged with a criminal activity.
Just How Can I Get Charged with Embezzlement and Would I Need an Embezzlement Lawyer in Santa Cruz County, AZ?
You can be charged as well as need an Embezzlement Lawyer in Santa Cruz County, AZ if you are under suspicion of acting on any sort of deceptive task with another individual’s or entity’s funds that have actually been misdirected and also utilized for your own individual use. It does not matter if you used them to help a close friend or family member or you personally profited. You utilized the assets unlawfully.
Many times it can take years that charges are brought up, specifically in cases where a controller or a bookkeeper had straight accessibility to assets as well as the business was lax about having their records properly investigated at important times. What takes place in this instance often times is the embezzler starts out slowly thieving a couple of bits of cash out each time. After that due to the fact that they have not been found out yet, greed can embed in so they start getting more money. Their manager ultimately will catch on and start to check out. They will possibly employ an auditor to see what’s taking place and the auditor hopefully easily discovers the path of stolen cash or goods that leads back to the person that did it. This procedure can take years as a result of how this kind of criminal offense can play out. It all simply depends upon the situations of the burglary, the financial controls of the company, and when and if the firm’s representatives discover the possible losses they are experiencing.
When this takes place, officers of the law are called in, they gather each piece of the facts that they can, and also provide a warrant for the arrest of the person or individuals associated with the criminal activity. Then you will definitely want to call the best and top rated Santa Cruz 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 no charge, and you will discover important concepts that will help you defend the charges against you.
Is Embezzlement a Felony in Arizona?
This is a great inquiry. As a result of the nature of the criminal offense, you may think that it is in all situations. Nonetheless, there are cases that it is simply a misdemeanor in Arizona. Yet, even a misdemeanor can bring about penalties as well as jail time, although it will certainly not lead to a felon record. Embezzlement in Arizona will certainly be a misdemeanor if the value of the theft is $1,000 or less, which could have a punishment of as much as 6 months in jail. Any embezzlement or theft amounts higher than that will certainly be a felony if convicted, the class of which is identified by the quantity of the burglary. Felony charges can range anywhere in between a Class 6 felony for $1,000 to $2,000 in theft of products, with effects of as much as 2 years in prison (that’s prison, not jail) to a Class 2 felony for greater than $25,000 of theft of cash and/or goods. The repercussions for that are between 3 and 12.5 years in prison.
Exactly How Can I Defend Myself Against an Embezzlement arrest?
There are several reasons why people do things they do, as well as there are times when it looks like a person is doing something unlawful and also they are accused of that in their case, however the intent or real scenario was entirely different.
Take the Girl Scouts example from above. Let’s state you used the cash to purchase pizza for the local Scouts and you were licensed to do so from a person higher in GSA. Then something happens to that person as well as a new person has to take over yet was uninformed of the consent. They call the police and charge you for theft. Yet no burglary actually occurred because you used it for the scouts, and you had authorization, even though the proper communication was missing. In this scenario, your case would most likely be dropped due to the fact that there was no intent to misuse or abuse the funds as well as there was permission to utilize them for the objective they were.
There are various other potential legit defenses versus embezzlement also, such as the concern mentioned above where somebody else was requiring the actions upon the individual that remained in the position of monetary responsibility. Every one of these are taken on a per instance basis, and also you have to have a really strong protection in your corner in order to defeat costs like these. If all the proof points to you and you also worked in that setting of trust, just the toughest criminal defense by the best and top rated Embezzlement Lawyer in Santa Cruz County, AZ can defend your rights in court.