So I know embezzlement is when someone in charge of finances syphons a part of the company's money, but what about stealing inventory and selling it for profit? For example, let's say a video game company needs 300,000 blank discs but the person in charge of Finances orders 400,000 and, with help from the guy from Inventory, sells the excess 100,000 blank discs at half their value, and this scheme goes on every month for about five years until they get caught. Would the guys in Finances and Inventory be guilty of embezzlement, or just plain theft? I'm well aware they'd also be in hot water for tax fraud.
I studied french law - but I am not extremely familiar with US federal and states law. Embezzlement for using company money to buy the discs, tax fraud (as you mentioned), conspiracy to do all the above is a crime too. If they kept it up for five years, they probably did some other crimes to keep this from being discovered. In particular, they would have to fake the accounts at the end of the year which is a crime in itself (false accounting). If the company is big, they would have an external auditor examining those accounts - they would either need to bribe or coerce the auditor.
If the discs are taken and sold, it would be theft . If the books are altered to hide the theft , that would be embezzlement. It is possible to be guilty of more than one crime . This kind of crime is common , so most companies employ accountants or auditors to check the books .
Theft and embezzlement are two different concepts for me. I come from Iran. The economy is owned by the state which is rotten to the very core. I mean institutionalized corruption like you cannot imagine. There are people here who embezzle money and literally overnight they go from rags to riches. So, the way I see it, embezzlement is about money and theft is about physical objects.
Theft is when you get the property illegally and claim it as your own. Embezzlement is when you obtain the property legally (eg. someone entrusts it to you) and you withhold it as your own. Fraud is when you make intentional false representation to deceive someone. Conspiracy is when two or more people agree to break the laws and have taken steps towards their plan completion. If someone from the marketing deceives his colleague from finance to reimburse money, that is theft and fraud. If someone from finance misappropriate his position and takes some money, that is embezzlement, and if he makes some false records to hide the crime that would be an additional fraud case against him. If the criminal act involves more than one person working together, that is a conspiracy. In your example of people from finance and inventory colluding to make false purchases and sell the extra inventory for profits, that would be embezzlement and fraud and conspiracy.