Embezzlement Lawyer in Greensboro, NC
Embezzlement is the one theft offense where you were supposed to have the money. That makes the case about intent and about records, not about whether you had access. Every grade of it in North Carolina is a felony, and there is no statute of limitations on a felony here.
Under investigation, or already charged?
If an employer is asking questions and no charge has been filed yet, that is the best moment to call.
Sending this form does not make us your lawyer yet.
Every grade is a felony. G.S. 14-90(c): Class C if the value is $100,000 or more, Class H if it is less. The line is "or more", so exactly $100,000 is a Class C.
But the section matters. If you work for a city, a county, a school board or the State, the charge is G.S. 14-91, G.S. 14-92 or G.S. 14-99, where the same amount under $100,000 is a Class F, not a Class H. A page that quotes one pair of classes for all embezzlement is wrong for public employees.
Lawful receipt is the heart of the offense. The State is not alleging you took something you were not allowed to touch. It is alleging that property which lawfully came into your possession or care was then converted. Which means the fight is over intent, and intent is argued out of records.
- What class is my charge
- What the State has to prove
- Embezzlement, larceny by employee, or false pretenses
- The 2024 aggregation statute
- There is no statute of limitations
- Before a charge is filed
- Restitution, and the limit on it
- How to choose an embezzlement lawyer in Greensboro
- Your attorney
- What clients say
- Where we practice
- Questions people ask
What class is my charge
| Statute | Who it covers | $100,000 or more | Under $100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| G.S. 14-90 | Public trust or office, fiduciaries, corporate officers and agents, agents, consignees, clerks, bailees and servants | Class C | Class H |
| G.S. 14-91 | State property, by public officers and employees | Class C | Class F |
| G.S. 14-92 | Funds held by county, city, local government, local board of education and institutional officers and trustees | Class C | Class F |
| G.S. 14-99 | Embezzlement of taxes by officers | Class C | Class F |
| G.S. 14-74 | Larceny by servants and employees. Reaches an employee only. | Class C | Class H |
| G.S. 14-100 | Obtaining property by false pretenses | Class C | Class H |
G.S. 14-90(a) lists who the main embezzlement statute reaches, and it is broader than “employee”: a person exercising a public trust, a person holding public office, a guardian, administrator, executor, trustee, receiver or any other fiduciary including a settlement agent under G.S. 45A-3, an officer or agent of a corporation, and any agent, consignee, clerk, bailee or servant. The under-16 exception sits inside subdivision (a)(4) and so reaches only that last group, the corporate officers and agents, agents, consignees, clerks, bailees and servants. It does not exempt anyone covered by (a)(1) through (a)(3).
So a trustee, an executor, a closing agent and a non-employee contractor all fall inside 14-90 while falling outside the employee-theft statute entirely. Which section you are charged under is not a formality, and it is the first thing to read off the paperwork.
What the State has to prove
Reading G.S. 14-90(b) together with the North Carolina pattern jury instruction, which is not itself a statute, the State must prove four things beyond a reasonable doubt:
- A covered capacity. That you occupied one of the positions in 14-90(a).
- Receipt in that capacity. That while acting in it, the property came into your possession or care.
- Conversion with intent. That you embezzled, or fraudulently or knowingly and willfully misapplied or converted, the property to your own use, or took, made away with or secreted it with that intent.
- Value, where the charge is the Class C grade.
Element three is where these cases are won and lost, because a shortfall is not it. Money missing from an account is consistent with conversion and also consistent with poor bookkeeping, an undocumented authorization, a loan everybody knew about, commingled accounts in a small business, a reimbursement practice nobody wrote down, and a dispute about what the arrangement was. The State has to exclude those, and the material that lets it be done is the records.
- How the account was actually run, over the whole period and not just the months the company chose to audit.
- Who authorized what, and whether anybody else had access or signature authority.
- What the employer’s own documentation says, as against what its witnesses now remember.
- Whether the forensic figure holds, once the methodology and the assumptions behind it are examined.
Embezzlement, larceny by employee, or false pretenses
Three statutes cover overlapping ground and in Guilford County the choice of which to charge belongs to the District Attorney. The distinction is about when the deceit happened relative to possession.
- Embezzlement, G.S. 14-90. You received the property lawfully, in a fiduciary or employment capacity, and then converted it. Reaches non-employees, which the other employee statute does not.
- Larceny by servants and employees, G.S. 14-74. Same classes, but it reaches only a “servant or other employee” of a “master”. Apprentices and servants under 16 are excluded.
- Obtaining property by false pretenses, G.S. 14-100. You obtained the property in the first place by a lie. A fabricated invoice from a vendor is this offense; a bookkeeper diverting from an account she was given access to is embezzlement.
Two pieces of statutory text in 14-100 are worth knowing. The first is a proviso: if on a false pretenses trial the proof shows the property was obtained in a manner amounting to larceny or embezzlement, that other felony is submitted to the jury, and no person tried for false pretenses may afterwards be prosecuted for larceny or embezzlement upon the same facts. The second is subsection (b): “Evidence of nonfulfillment of a contract obligation standing alone shall not establish the essential element of intent to defraud.” That sentence exists because business disputes get dressed up as crimes, and it is the right place to start when one has been.
Has the company already interviewed you?
What has been said in an HR meeting, an internal investigation or an insurance claim becomes the State's evidence. Call before the next conversation, not after.
Call (336) 379-0539Free consultation, answered 24/7The 2024 aggregation statute
G.S. 15A-1340.16F took effect on 1 March 2024 and most descriptions of North Carolina embezzlement written before then do not mention it. It lets the State combine separate financial crime convictions into one larger felony for sentencing.
| Aggregated value exceeds | Punished as |
|---|---|
| $1,500 | One Class H felony |
| $20,000 | One Class G felony |
| $50,000 | One Class F felony |
| $100,000 | One Class C felony |
The statute’s own conditions are the defense, and they are narrow:
- Two or more convictions of the same offense are required. Not charges, convictions.
- More than one victim or more than one county. A series of takings from a single employer in Guilford County alone does not satisfy this condition.
- The same act or transaction, or a series of acts connected together or forming parts of a common scheme or plan.
- The State must plead it and identify which offenses it seeks to aggregate.
- The State must prove it beyond a reasonable doubt at the same trial, and these are jury issues. If a defendant pleads to the offenses but not to the aggregation facts, a jury is impaneled to decide them.
- It is optional. Nothing requires even eligible offenses to be aggregated.
Note what aggregation does not change: separate takings from one victim in one county are still a matter of charging discretion, where the District Attorney may charge related conversions as separate counts or combine them into one. That question is older than the statute and it is argued differently.
There is no statute of limitations
This is the question clients ask most about an old shortfall, and the honest answer is unwelcome. G.S. 15-1 is captioned “Statute of limitations for misdemeanors” and reaches only misdemeanors. North Carolina has no limitation period for felonies, and every grade of embezzlement is a felony. A 2015 discrepancy can be charged in 2026.
The protections that do exist are constitutional rather than statutory: the speedy trial guarantee, and due process where delay has caused real prejudice. Case law rather than statute supplies the rule: in State v. Johnson, 275 N.C. 264 (1969), the Supreme Court put it plainly, that in this State no statute of limitations bars the prosecution of a felony and the constitutional guarantee of a speedy trial imposes the only limitation upon purposeful and oppressive delay. Whether delay in your case rises to that is a real argument, but it is not a calendar.
Before a charge is filed
Embezzlement is one of the few charges that usually announces itself in advance. There is an audit, or an HR meeting, or a suspension, or a letter from a lawyer, weeks before anyone goes to a magistrate. That window is the most valuable part of the case and it is the part most often spent badly.
- An internal investigation is not confidential to you. What you say in it reaches the police and then the District Attorney.
- Repayment is not a defense, and depending on how it is characterized it can read as an admission. It can also matter a great deal to how a case resolves. The difference is in how it is done.
- An insurance claim is sworn, and a fidelity bond claim creates a parallel record with its own figure in it.
- A prosecutor can decline to charge, and the moment to put a documented alternative account in front of one is before the decision rather than after.
If a company is asking you questions and no charge has been filed, that is the call to make today.
Restitution, and the limit on it
Restitution is where a financial case keeps costing after it ends, and there is a constraint in the statute that is worth knowing. Under G.S. 15A-1340.36(a) the amount “must be limited to that supported by the record”, and the court shall take into consideration the resources of the defendant, including income, ability to earn and obligations to dependents.
In practice a figure arrives on a worksheet, and the figure is frequently larger than the record supports. Under G.S. 15A-1340.35(b) the court may require the victim to provide admissible evidence documenting the costs claimed, and any such documentation must be shared with the defendant before the sentencing hearing. Asking the court to do that is a specific piece of work with a number attached to it.
Related: fraud charges · larceny by employee · false pretenses · theft offenses · federal charges · expunctions
How to choose an embezzlement lawyer in Greensboro
Under Rule 7.1 of the North Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct a lawyer may
not make a false or misleading communication about their services, and an
unverifiable claim to be the best is the standard example. A firm that advertises
that way is telling you something about how it reads its own rules.
So judge on answers instead. Every question below has an exact answer. A firm
that handles these cases every week will give you one on the phone, for free, in
a few minutes. A firm that gives you a brochure answer is telling you something too.
- Which statute am I charged under?
G.S. 14-90 is Class H under $100,000. But a city, county, school board or State employee is charged under 14-91, 14-92 or 14-99, where the same amount is a Class F. A firm should name the section before it quotes the exposure. - Is the State going to aggregate?
G.S. 15A-1340.16F took effect on 1 March 2024 and turns a series of small takings into one larger felony, but only on specific findings a jury has to make. Most pages written before 2024 do not mention it. - How does the State intend to prove intent, as opposed to a shortfall?
A missing balance is not a crime. Intent to convert is the element, and the records that show how an account was actually run are where that argument lives. - Who has been talking to the company, and about what?
An internal investigation, an HR interview, an insurance claim and a forensic accounting report all become the State’s evidence. What has already been said matters more than what happens next. - Will you handle the restitution number, not just the plea?
The amount is limited to what the record supports, and the figure on a worksheet is often more than the record supports. That is a separate piece of work.
Ask us the same questions. (336) 379-0539.
Your attorney
Jason Aycoth
Embezzlement · White Collar Defense · Guilford County
Jason handles criminal cases in state and federal court across North Carolina. He has served as Editor of the True Bill and was Commencement Speaker at Elon Law School's graduation.
- Former President, Greensboro Criminal Defense Lawyers Association
- Elected member, Criminal Justice Section, North Carolina Bar Association
- Selected to present the Wade M. Smith Award for Top Criminal Defense Lawyer in North Carolina
Chad D. GarrettFounderJason AycothPartner
Sean OlsonPartner
Brandon GoldsboroughCriminal Defense
Stephanie GoldsboroughCriminal Defense
Rebecca ElliottCriminal Defense
Patrick BidwellCriminal Defense
Samantha HeplerCriminal DefenseWhat clients say
4.9 out of 5 from 587 Google reviews. A few recent ones:
Where we practice
Our office is two minutes from the Guilford County Courthouse.
Guilford County: Greensboro · High Point · Jamestown · Gibsonville · Summerfield · Oak Ridge · Pleasant Garden · Stokesdale · Whitsett · McLeansville · Sedalia
Also serving: Randolph, Forsyth, Alamance, Rockingham and Davidson Counties
Questions people ask
Is embezzlement a felony in North Carolina?
Yes, at every level. G.S. 14-90 makes it a Class C felony if the value is $100,000 or more and a Class H felony if it is less. There is no misdemeanor grade of embezzlement. For public officers and employees the applicable sections are 14-91, 14-92 and 14-99, where the under-$100,000 grade is a Class F.
What is the difference between embezzlement and larceny?
Lawful receipt. Larceny is taking property you had no right to possess. Embezzlement is converting property that lawfully came into your possession or care in a fiduciary or employment capacity. That is why access is never the issue in an embezzlement case, and intent always is.
Is there a statute of limitations on embezzlement in NC?
No. G.S. 15-1 sets limitation periods for misdemeanors only, and North Carolina has no limitation period for felonies. Because every grade of embezzlement is a felony, conduct from years ago can still be charged. The only time-based protections are the constitutional speedy trial guarantee and due process where delay has caused real prejudice.
If I pay the money back, will the charge go away?
Repayment is not a defense and does not by itself end a case. Depending on how it is characterized it can be read as an admission, and it can also matter a great deal to how a case resolves. The difference between those two outcomes is in how and when it is done and what is said about it, which is a reason to take advice before writing a check.
My employer wants to interview me. Should I go?
Not before you have talked to a lawyer. An internal investigation is not confidential to you, and what is said in an HR meeting routinely becomes the State's evidence through the company's own notes. The pre-charge window is the most valuable part of an embezzlement case, and a prosecutor can still decline to charge.
What is the new aggregation law?
G.S. 15A-1340.16F, effective 1 March 2024, lets the State combine two or more convictions of the same financial crime offense into one felony for sentencing, at tiers running from over $1,500 as a Class H up to over $100,000 as a Class C. It applies only where the offenses involved more than one victim or more than one county and formed a common scheme, the State pleads it, and a jury finds it beyond a reasonable doubt.
How much restitution will I have to pay?
Under G.S. 15A-1340.36 the amount must be limited to that supported by the record, and the court must take into consideration your resources, including income, ability to earn and obligations to dependents. The figure that arrives on a worksheet is often larger than the record supports, and the court may require the victim to document the costs claimed.
Could this become a federal case?
It can, where the alleged scheme touches wire or mail transmissions, a federally insured bank, a federal benefit program or an employee benefit plan. The decision belongs to the United States Attorney, and the sentencing framework is entirely different. If federal agents rather than Greensboro police are asking questions, say so on the first call.
Will an embezzlement charge show on a background check?
A charge appears whether or not it results in a conviction, which is one reason the disposition matters more than the outcome of the sentencing hearing. A dismissal or an acquittal can be expunged under the expunction statutes, with their own eligibility rules. A felony conviction has consequences for professional licensing, bonding and employment in finance that run well past any sentence.
What does an embezzlement defense cost?
A flat fee quoted on the first call, with the exclusions named. Pre-charge work is quoted separately from a charged case, and for an investigation that has not yet produced a charge it is usually the cheapest money spent on the whole matter.
Talk to a Greensboro embezzlement lawyer
Free consultation. If an employer is asking questions and no charge has been filed, call now.
Garrett, Walker, Aycoth & Olson, Attorneys at Law
317 South Greene St, Greensboro, NC 27401
(336) 379-0539 · answered live, 24 hours
Free consultation · Se habla español
This page explains North Carolina law in general terms as of October 2026. It is not legal advice about your case, and penalties and statutes change. Figures come from N.C.G.S. 14-74, 14-90 to 14-100, 15-1 and 15A-1340.16F.