What is defined as the theft or misappropriation of funds placed in one's trust or belonging to one's employer?

Embezzlement is specifically the act of theft or misappropriation of funds that have been entrusted to an individual’s care, typically in a professional context where a person has a fiduciary duty to manage those funds responsibly. This crime often involves an employee or official who has access to money or property and unlawfully takes it for personal use. The defining characteristic of embezzlement is that the funds were legally in the individual’s possession at some point, which differentiates it from other theft-related crimes.

Other options refer to different types of theft: burglary involves entering a building unlawfully with the intent to commit a crime therein. Robbery is defined as taking property from a person through force or intimidation, while larceny is the unlawful taking of someone else's property with the intent to permanently deprive the owner of it. Neither burglary nor robbery necessarily involve a fiduciary duty or the trust aspect central to embezzlement, and larceny does not require an existing trust relationship, making embezzlement the most accurate choice for this definition.