Published on 8/3/2026, 12:00:00 AM

Is Embezzlement a Felony in Maryland?

Not automatically. Embezzlement in Maryland is usually charged under the general theft statute, so the felony line depends on the amount: $1,500 or more is a felony, anything less is a misdemeanor. There is also a separate embezzlement statute for fiduciaries, and it comes with a twist. That charge is a misdemeanor on paper, but it carries a mandatory minimum of 1 year and can be filed at any time, with no statute of limitations.

So the honest answer to “is embezzlement a felony” is: it depends on how much money is involved and which statute the State picks. This post walks through both paths, the penalties, and what to do if an employer or detective starts asking questions. If you are already facing a charge, start with our embezzlement defense page.

How Maryland Treats Embezzlement Charges

Maryland does not have one big “embezzlement” crime the way television suggests. What people call embezzlement, an employee, officer, or trustee taking money they were trusted to manage, gets prosecuted two ways:

1. As theft under Criminal Law Section 7-104. This is the usual route. Taking money you had lawful access to and converting it to your own use is theft, and the charge level tracks the dollar value, exactly like shoplifting or any other taking. Our Maryland theft lawyer hub covers the full statute.
2. As embezzlement by a fiduciary under Criminal Law Section 7-113. This narrower statute applies to fiduciaries, people like trustees and executors who hold money or property under a trust responsibility. A fiduciary may not fraudulently and willfully appropriate that money contrary to their trust responsibility, or hide it with fraudulent intent to use it that way.

What separates embezzlement from ordinary theft is access. A shoplifter takes property they never had a right to touch. An embezzlement defendant had lawful access, a till, a ledger, a client trust account, and the State says they crossed the line from managing the money to taking it. That difference shapes the whole case, because intent becomes the battleground.

When Embezzlement Is Charged as a Felony

Under the theft statute, the felony line is $1,500. Here is the ladder:

Value taken	Charge	Maximum penalty
Less than $100	Misdemeanor	90 days jail and $500 fine
$100 to less than $1,500	Misdemeanor	6 months jail and $500 fine
$1,500 to less than $25,000	Felony	5 years and $10,000 fine
$25,000 to less than $100,000	Felony	10 years and $15,000 fine
$100,000 or more	Felony	20 years and $25,000 fine

Two things make embezzlement cases land higher on this ladder than defendants expect:

• Aggregation. Workplace cases rarely involve one taking. The State adds up months or years of transactions to reach a single loss total, which is how a series of small transfers becomes a felony theft charge.
• The loss total is contested ground. Sloppy bookkeeping, legitimate reimbursements, and disputed authorizations all get swept into the State’s number. Pushing the proven amount below a threshold changes the charge itself.

The fiduciary statute runs the other direction. Section 7-113 is labeled a misdemeanor, but a conviction carries imprisonment for not less than 1 year and not more than 5 years. That mandatory minimum is harsher than plenty of felonies, and because the statute is subject to Section 5-106(b) of the Courts Article, there is no time limit on when the State can file the charge. A trust dispute from a decade ago can still turn into a criminal case.

Embezzlement vs. Theft vs. Fraud in Maryland

These three overlap, and prosecutors often charge more than one:

• Theft is the umbrella: taking property without consent with intent to deprive the owner. Embezzlement is theft committed by someone who had lawful access.
• Embezzlement adds the trust relationship, an employee, officer, or fiduciary managing someone else’s money. The State leans on ledgers, access logs, and audit trails rather than eyewitnesses.
• Fraud turns on deception: bad checks, falsified invoices, and misused credit cards get charged under separate fraud statutes. Our fraud and bad check page covers those, and document-heavy financial cases generally live in our white collar defense practice.

The same conduct can fit several boxes. Falsifying expense reports to redirect company money, for example, can be charged as theft by aggregation and as fraud on the documents.

Penalties, Restitution, and Employment Consequences

The jail exposure in the table above is only part of the picture:

• Restitution. Courts in theft cases routinely order repayment of the loss, and the State treats restitution as a core term of any resolution. Paying it back does not erase the charge, but a defendant who can make the victim whole usually negotiates from a far stronger position.
• Probation and records. Outcomes like probation before judgment can protect the record in the right case, which matters enormously for a charge whose whole story is trust.
• Employment fallout. An embezzlement conviction reads as a crime of dishonesty to every future employer, licensing board, and bonding company. For careers in finance, law, healthcare, and anything involving fiduciary duties, the collateral damage often outlasts the sentence. Where eligibility exists, our expungement guide explains how records get cleared.

Defenses to Embezzlement Allegations

These cases are built on paper, and paper cuts both ways:

• Lack of intent. Embezzlement requires fraudulent intent, a purpose to permanently deprive the owner. Sloppy accounting, commingled funds, and informal borrowing practices that management tolerated are not the same thing as fraud.
• Mistake or accounting error. What an auditor flags as misappropriation is sometimes a misclassified transaction or a misunderstanding about authorization.
• Authorization disputes. If a partner, supervisor, or client approved the use of the funds, or reasonably appeared to, the criminal case weakens fast.
• Contested loss totals. Attacking the State’s aggregated number can drop a felony below the $1,500 line or expose the audit as unreliable.
• Insufficient evidence. The State needs to prove who moved the money and why. Shared logins, multiple people with access, and gaps in the records create reasonable doubt.

We work these cases with forensic accounting scrutiny: examining the records for inconsistencies, presenting alternative explanations for discrepancies, and challenging the prosecution’s loss math.

What to Do If Police or Your Employer Accuses You

Most embezzlement cases start with an internal audit or an HR meeting, not an arrest, and what happens in that window shapes everything:

1. Do not explain yourself to the employer or investigators. The friendly meeting where you are invited to “clear things up” is evidence collection. Anything you say, and anything you sign, will follow you into the criminal case.
2. Do not repay anything on the spot. A payment made under pressure gets framed as an admission. Restitution has real value, but it should be deployed through counsel as part of a strategy.
3. Preserve what you have. Emails, approvals, and records showing authorization or common practice have a way of disappearing from company systems after you are locked out.
4. Get counsel before charges are filed. Early intervention sometimes keeps a referral from becoming a charge, and it always beats catching up after an indictment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is embezzlement a felony in every case?

No. Charged as theft, it is a felony only when the amount is $1,500 or more. Below that, it is a misdemeanor. The separate fiduciary embezzlement statute, Section 7-113, is classified as a misdemeanor, but it carries a 1-to-5-year sentence with a mandatory minimum.

Can first-time offenders avoid jail for embezzlement?

Often, yes. For a first offense, especially with a contested loss total or full restitution, realistic outcomes include probation, probation before judgment, or a negotiated reduction. The fiduciary statute’s 1-year minimum is the exception, which is one reason the choice of charge matters so much.

Can restitution help your case?

Yes, when it is used strategically. Making the victim whole strengthens negotiations and mitigates sentencing. But rushing to repay before you have counsel can read as a confession, so the timing and framing should come from your lawyer.

Is there a statute of limitations on embezzlement in Maryland?

For the fiduciary embezzlement statute, no. Section 7-113 is subject to Courts Article Section 5-106(b), which means the State can bring the charge at any time, no matter how old the conduct is.

Accused of Embezzlement? Call Before You Answer Questions

Embezzlement cases are won and lost in the records, and in what you say before you have a lawyer. Our embezzlement defense team handles these cases across Maryland, and our Maryland criminal lawyer hub covers the rest of our practice.

Contact FrizWoods for a free consultation, or call us any hour at (877) 343-1031.