the.com/embezzlement
theft in a suit, where the thief already had the keys you handed them
means the act of stealing money or property that someone entrusted to your care, typically by an employee or official quietly siphoning funds they were authorized to handle
from From the Anglo-Norman legal verb 'embesiler,' meaning to make away with or carry off, which entered English in the 15th century. The root likely traces to Old French 'besillier,' to maltreat or ravage. The financial sense — pilfering what was entrusted to you rather than simply stealing — sharpened over time as the law learned to distinguish the burglar from the bookkeeper.
- origin
- From Old French meaning to make disappear
- trust required
- Only people you gave access can do it
- slow drip
- Often tiny amounts over years, never detected
- who pays
- Nonprofits and churches are frequent victims
- famous case
- Bernie Madoff ran the largest Ponzi ever
elizabeth holmes theranos — founder defrauded investors of $700 million, convicted 2022
bernie madoff ponzi scheme — stole $65 billion from clients over decades, arrested 2008
allen stanford financial group — former banker embezzled $8 billion in houston, sentenced 2012