Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
Table of Contents
State v. Grandy, ___ N.C. App. ___, 821 S.E.2d 243 (Oct. 2, 2018)
The evidence was sufficient to sustain the defendant’s convictions for embezzlement under G.S. 14-90. The defendant, a director of accounting for a Foundation, transferred over $400,000 from the Foundation’s account into her personal account. The defendant asserted that she was not entrusted with the funds in the course of her employment. To access the funds, her employer’s bank required the defendant to use both her own security device, which they referred to as a “key fob,” along with her supervisor’s key fob. Because the bank issued the key fobs to each employee individually, the defendant asserted that she was not entrusted with the funds. Here however the defendant’s employer entrusted her with both key fobs, even if the bank intended otherwise. She had lawful possession or control of both her own key fob and her supervisor’s key fob when she obtained the funds. Although the bank intended for two employees to participate in each transaction as a security measure, the Foundation did not require its employees to use the key fobs as the bank intended. Instead, it entrusted the entire process to the defendant.