Legal Question in Business Law in California

You could always report the employee to law enforcement. Your husband might want to post this question for a criminal attorney because he might have some thorny questions to answer, himself. You also can sue the former employee if he took money from the business without consent.

This can be treated as a criminal or a civil matter, or both at your election.

Your husband or you could make a complaint to the police or sheriff, who may have a white-collar crimes investigation unit. Law enforcement will take a report from you, investigate, and if the facts warrant, turn the matter over to the district attorney for prosecution. The crime charged would probably be embezzlement.

As a civil case, your husband, or his business if it is a separate entity such as a corporation or LLC, would investigate, prepare and file a lawsuit alleging "conversion" (and perhaps other wrongs) against the employee.

You, your husband, and/or the business should consider retaining a lawyer to assist you with addressing these wrongs, and the advice of a CPA would also be useful to document the extent of the losses and to advise you on how to prevent such defalcations in the future.

File a police report. You can also sue for recovery of the money, if it makes sense to do so financially. If the person has nothing, then nothing is what you're going to recover.

Ok so it depends on what you want to accomplish. What the employee has done is both a criminal offense and a civil wrong against your business. Depending on how much is involved and how much money the employee has then that would determine whether to go after him civilly. Criminally its up to you. I would probably fire him first if he didn't agree to repay the money and knock it off but I would watch him like a hawk.

Good luck, and best wishes for a happy new year.

You can file a lawsuit against the employee. if the amount is $7500 or less, you probably should file in small claims court. You can also report the theft to law enforcement, but the only way for you to get restitution is for the court to order it.