A former employer of mine is accusing me of embezzlement. I did the payroll, and he is claiming that I paid myself more than authorized. The amount he claims I now must pay back is $20,000. We never had any written agreement as to to how I would make every week. I paid myself what I would have charged at any other job. I worked for him for over a year and he has just know came after me for the money. He claims he never noticed until now. He is threatening a criminal suit if I don't pay up. Are there any legal grounds for this?

This former employer, did he keep a payroll history on you? Who prepared your W2s? An office account or were you the office accountant?

Did you in fact pay yourself $20 K more than you should have? Over what time?

Did your workload increase over the times he claims you were being overpaid. Be prepared to justify the increased monies that were paid to you.

Is the employer that is making the claim, the head of the corporation?

Get an attorney, take his/her advice and let the chips fall, Just to rub salt in the wound, if he sues you file a counter claim, and ask the court for your costs associated with this case to be paid by him

He did keep a payroll history on me, and the amount I paid myself never changed throughout the history of my employement. However, I did start working some days at home and that is the time he is accusing me of overpaying myself. Our W-2's and payroll is done by a payroll service. My workload stayed the same throughout my employment. I do not feel that I paid myself $20k more, but there was no agreement between us so I paid myself what I was making before working days at home. This is not a corporation, this is a small company of 9 employees.

I do not want to get an attorney unless my ex-boss really files a suit. He only threatened to do so but has taken no action yet.

Without a written agreement on your rate of pay, what is he basing his assertion on? If you have evidence to support your fees such as comparable charges paid by others, that would seem to support your case. Did you provide monthly statements to him about the expenditures?

I have no idea what he is basing his assertion on. He says we had a verbal agreement to pay me less. I did not provide monthly statements to him, but I left the payroll on his desk every week for his review. Unfortunately, the office does not use time cards, so I have no proof of hours worked.

If he does take you to court, you could always have those payroll records brought in for evidence. That would make him look pretty foolish in my way of thinking. It sounds like a case of bad blood since you left... I wonder if he had to sign off on those payroll documents before the money was paid out by the payroll service?

Don't you guys keep a paper trail?

Do you handle cash only? If so, that maybe mistake number one that may work against you.

The only paper trail is the payroll ledgers. I did not handle cash. He is accusing me of stealing hours through payroll.

He did not have to sign off on the payroll douments. He just filed them.

I don't know how he can prove anything without a paper trail.

Maybe someone else here has answers for you.

You might think about applying for work somewhere else also. He may just be looking for an excuse to get rid of you. Maybe he doesn't want to spend money on your salary or may be he wants to hire someone else for less money.

He might have something else in mind that you don't know about.

Hello Happy:

If he didn't notice it waaaaay back then, then the court is going to wonder why? I do too. Therefore, he won't win civilly. Plus, in my view, if he attempts to file criminal charges, the district attorney will throw him out if his office laughing loudly.

excon

First embezzlement is a criminal charge. It refers to when an employee steals money they weren't entitled to. There is NO way In my opinion you can be prosecuted on an embezzlement charge since you simply reported time spent working. At the most, you might have to deal with a fraud charge, but I doubt that.

I would respond to the employer and advise him that you did nothing illegal. If he pursues criminal charges you will sue him for libel and false arrest.

{Note: Duplicate threads merged-<>}

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HappyFeet23

A former employer of mine is accusing me of embezzlement. I did the payroll, and he is claiming that I paid myself more than authorized. The amount he claims I now must pay back is $20,000. We never had any written agreement as to to how much I would make every week. I paid myself what I would have charged at any other job. I worked for him for over a year and he has just know came after me for the money. He claims he never noticed until now. He is threatening a law suit if I don't pay up. Are there any legal grounds for this? How can he prove that I was overpaid without any agreement? And, how can I prove I wasn't overpaid?

---

If you had no meeting of the minds and no contract - which apparently is the case - and this went on for some time I think this could go either way. On one hand you can't just pay yourself what you think you're worth or what you would charge someone else; on the other hand who operates a business without an understanding concerning salary? Also an overpayment of $20,000 in one year seems rather high to me as an overpayment, above and beyond "normal" salary.

Who signed the checks? That person should have noticed the discrepancy. (I am assuming you got one paycheck per pay period made out to you and there are not other checks floating around out there which ultimately went into your pocket.)

I would think if he decides to have you arrested and/or sues you you will have difficulty explaining why you never had an agreement as to the dollar amount of your wages - as will he. If you were bonded the bonding company will investigate and make recommendations.

I investigate some white collar crime and this is a new one on me!

If I understand the situation correctly, the boss may have a case. It appears that you and he had an agreement that he would pay you some unspecified, but unchanging, amount. The issue seems to be that you had been working X number of days a week for him at the office when he paid you that amount. Then, you started working some number of days at home, and paying yourself for that work. If he did not authorize you to work at home, then it becomes hard to see for sure that you actually worked those hours, and didn't just pay yourself for going shopping and doing the laundry. The only thing that isn't clear is whether that is X+Y, or X-Y. If you had been working 5 days in the office, and went to 4 days in the office and one at home, you may have a case for getting paid the same. On the other hand, if you had been working 3 days in the office, and now claim to be working 3 at the office and 2 at home... that looks a bit fishy to me. But without knowing all the ins and outs, it's hard to tell.

Get an attorney before he decides to file criminal charges against you. This way you know where you stand legally on this matter.

I stole from my employer by paying myself for extra hours (I did the payroll). I paid him the money back and we signed a brief agreement. Can he still have criminal charges brough against me?

I stole from my employer by paying myself for extra hours (I did the payroll). I paid him the money back and we signed a brief agreement. Can he still have criminal charges brough against me?

Hello Happy:

Yes.

excon

Stealing is stealing, even if you pay back the person you stole from. That's like paying for a funeral after you killed someone, a bit late now.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HappyFeet23

I stole from my employer by paying myself for extra hours (I did the payroll). I paid him the money back and we signed a brief agreement. Can he still have criminal charges brough against me?

---

I don't know what the agreement said - was it an agreement that he wouldn't press charges? - but unless the agreement was well written the answer is "yes."