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Under Nevada law, embezzlement is
defined as the misappropriation of property
that's been entrusted to you.
So it applies in a situation where
you had legitimate and lawful possession of the property
at one time, but then you did something illegally with it.
And the classic common sense example
is an employee at a store who takes cash from a customer
and is responsible to go deposit this money in the employers
bank account.
But instead of doing that, the employee pockets the money.
Or to give a less formal example,
suppose that you go and you borrow your neighbor's car.
And you say, hey can I borrow your car just a few minutes,
I'm just going to run down to the store.
But you never give it back.
You drive to another state and strip it for parts
and sell the car.
Well, the neighbor calls the police and says hey,
someone just stole my car.
In reality, you didn't steal the car, you embezzled the car.
Because in both of these situations
you had lawful rightful possession of the property
at one time, but then you converted it,
and did something illegal with it.
Now, embezzlement is a serious crime.
It can be charged as a misdemeanor or a felony.
How serious an embezzlement charge is
depends in large part on the value
of the property that was embezzled.
If the value is less than $650, that it
can only be filed as a misdemeanor,
and you're looking at a maximum of six months in jail.
But if the value is $650 or more,
than it can be filed as a felony.
And depending on the value of the embezzled property,
you could face up to 10 years in Nevada state prison.
But the worst aspect of being convicted of embezzlement
is that it goes on you record.
And I can tell you that it is next to impossible
to get a job anywhere if you have
a conviction for embezzlement.
Because obviously any employer's going to look at that
and feel that you're not trustworthy.
That they don't want to trust you with their property,
with their money money.
Put you in a position of trust at their company.
And so it's very easy to passover applicants
with a record like that and can make it almost impossible
to get a job.
We have found that embezzlement is one of those crimes where
a lot of innocent people get wrongly accused.
And this happens for a number of reasons.
Sometimes the alleged embezzler really
had an honest and reasonable belief
that they had the right to the property
or they had permission to take it.
And they weren't aware of doing anything wrong.
They weren't trying to do anything inappropriate.
Sometimes we find that it was really
somebody else who did the embezzling.
And the finger got pointed wrongly at our client.
And we've seen that again, in many situations when
let's say there's multiple employees at a store who
have access to the computers, or the cash register, or the safe.
And the finger gets pointed at our client,
but really it was another employee who did it.
And sometimes we have a situation
where the evidence is overwhelming
that our client did embezzle the money or property.
And maybe our client confesses.
But even in those cases, a lot of times
we're able to work out an informal resolution where
we agree to repay the money, we agree
to repay restitution in exchange for ultimately
getting the charges dropped.
Here at the Las Vegas Defense Group,
we have had a terrific record of success
over the years in defending people
who are charged with embezzlement here
in the state of Nevada.
And ultimately helping them to get their charges
reduced or even out right dismissed.