Embezzlement
From Wikinfo
Template:Crime
Embezzlement is the fraudulent appropriation of property by a person to whom it has been entrusted. For instance, a clerk or cashier can embezzle money from his employer; a public office can embezzle funds from the treasury.
Embezzlement differs from larceny. In larceny, the perpetrator wrongfully takes property from another's possession by fraud or stealth. In embezzlement, the property is already in the wrongdoer's possession, because it is entrusted to him for some purpose not his own; in embezzling, he appropriates it for his own use.
Embezzlement may range from the very minor, involving a few dollars, to immense, involving millions of dollars and very sophisticated schemes.
Embezzlement usually involves falsifying records in order to conceal the theft. Embezzlers commonly steal relatively small amounts repeatedly over a long period of time, although some embezzlers steal one large sum at one time. Some very successful embezzlement schemes have continued for many years before being detected due to the skill of the embezzler in concealing the nature of the transactions.
One of the most common methods of embezzlement is to under-report income, and pocket the difference. Another method is to create a false vendor account, and to supply false bills to the company being embezzled so that the checks that are cut appear completely legitimate. Yet another method is to create phantom employees, who are then paid with payroll checks.
The latter two methods should be uncovered by routine audits, but often aren't if the audit is not sufficiently in-depth, because the paperwork is in order. The first method is easy to detect if all transactions are by check or other instrument, but if many transactions are cash, it is much more difficult to detect. Employers have come up with a number of strategies to deal with this problem. In fact, cash registers were invented for just this reason.
- Additional work on this article is appreciated.
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Embezzlement" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embezzlement, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
