The exploitation of funds deposited in one’s trust or held by the employer for private gain is called embezzlement. Stealing any important information from the company and selling it for money to another party that can benefit economically from that information is also included in this crime.
From a law point of view, it could also be referred to, in a broader sense, as punishable conduct committed by public officials, consisting of theft, diversion, bad investment or improper use of funds or public funds. Say of those objects that have appreciable economic value belonging to the Public Administration, on the occasion of the exercise of their positions.
Examples:
Examples of workplace malfeasance typically include: having a “ghost” employee on a payroll, unauthorized money transfers between company accounts, having inactive accounts in accounting books or stealing money from the cash register.
Types of embezzlement:
- Computer-related embezzlement
If you are a computer expert and working as your company’s IT expert, then the allegations against you may be one of them as mentioned below,
Electronically skimmed every sale of your company and transferred it to your own account.
Inserted the logic code into the computer system of your company your that allowed it to transfer huge amount to your own account.
Inserted a technical and complex trojan horse program into your computer system of the company that let it automatically to perform authorized and unauthorized functions and also allows to transfer amount to your system.
- Negotiables embezzlement
If your job is to handle the company’s essential and negotiable documents then the allegations against you could be that you stole, altered, forged or somehow manipulated one or more of the following to obtain funds for yourself illegally:
- Refund authorizations
- Credit or debit memos
- Company checks
- Customer money orders
- Wire transfer embezzlement
The accusations could be that you illegally intercepted, manipulated or altered your company’s accounts to transfer money from one account to another of your own. One-way employees do this is by changing the payment instructions on documents coming into their company electronically or by fax.
- Credit embezzlement
The charge against you could be that you misused credit card numbers to embezzle using identity theft. Whether you had access to the credit card of your own company or those of your customers, it is the much easier thing for criminals to obtain illegal cash advances from other’s credit card.
- Cash skimming
Smallest and probably the easiest type of larceny, it involves casually stealing cash while on duty. Bartenders and cashiers are mostly involved in this type of larceny. During their normal job, they keep a little bit of cash for themselves without entering it into register or computer.
It depends. In Virginia, this wrongdoing can be treated as a felony or a misdemeanor, relying on the condition of the case and, sometimes, the criminal history of the indicted individual.
Penalty :
The retribution for a first-time in-diction of embezzlement as a felony is one to 20 years of captivity in the state correctional facility, confinement in jail for up to 12 months, and/or a fine of up to $2,500. The offense as a misdemeanor is punishable by a maximal 12 months in custody and/or a fine of up to $2,500. Virginia Criminal Code § 18.2-111. Virginia Criminal Code § 18.2-95. Virginia Criminal Code § 18.2-96. Virginia Criminal Code § 18.2-152.8.