Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Accounting Fraud

Embezzlement is not an element of fraud, so the fact that none occurred doesn't absolve you of the fraud charge.

If the company believes you committed a crime it can report you to the police and/or the prosecutor. If you have a license it can report you to your licensing entity. If your actions cost it money or otherwise harmed it it can sue you civilly. Depending upon the specifics it may have other rights as well.

You should consult with a lawyer and explain your situation in more detail to get a sense of what may lie in store for you.

Re: Accounting Fraud

I generally agree with the previous answer. Embezzlement and fraud overlap but the presence of one does not necessarily imply the existence of the other.

Let's forget embezzlement for the moment, and focus on two other possible problem areas: fraud and negligence.

Fraud can be charged either by the DA as a crime, or in a civil complaint by a defrauded party. Here, I think a civil action may be the main concern. Fraud is a broad concept, but usually its proof required proof of an intent to deceive, which may be by intentional misrepresentation or intentionally withholding information that ought to be disclosed. See Civil Code sections 1572 and 1573 for simple definitions of the most common kinds of fraud. Making a mistake is probably not fraud, unless you are using the term "mistake" to express regret for committing a deliberate bad act. Murder can be a "mistake" in the afterthoughts of the perpetrator, but it was not a mistake at the time he deliberately pulled the trigger.

Assuming it was a mistake in the usual sense, such as momentarily forgetting which side of the ledger is the debits and which is the credits, it is more likely that your boo-boo would be deemed negligence rather than fraud. A kind of accountant's malpractice. Employers can sue their own employees for negligence, but there are some defenses and legal obstacles to doing so successfully that don't arise when, say, they are suing their independent bookkeepers or outside CPAs. One of these is that the employer may be deemed contributorily negligent through failure to supervise or by making a bad hiring decision.

Your situation probably falls more under the LawGuru headings having to do with torts and negligence, and I suggest you re-ask it under such a heading, perhaps presenting some additional facts as to the general nature of the mistake you made and who was affected by its consequences, and how seriously.