Embezzlement << ehm BEHZ uhl muhnt >> is the crime committed when someone entrusted with another’s money or property illegally takes it for personal use. It is not like a robbery, in which the robber takes money or property by force or threat. In an embezzlement, the owner has turned the property over to the embezzler.
Embezzlement is a modern crime. In early English common law, a person could not be charged with theft if the property taken had been legally entrusted, even though the person did not use the property in the way its owner wanted. However, business people needed a law to protect their property while their employees handled it. So the courts devised the crime of embezzlement. The punishment for embezzlement is imprisonment. Usually the penalty is the same as for larceny—a year or more in prison for a major theft and less than a year for a minor theft (see Larceny).
