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Senate Bill 558 History
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ENROLLED
Senate Bill No. 558
(By Senators Caldwell, Rowe and McKenzie)
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[Passed March 13, 2004; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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AN ACT to
amend and reenact §61-3-20 of the code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended; and to amend said code by adding thereto a
new section, designated §61-3-20a, all relating to crimes of
embezzlement; removing certain evidentiary presumptions which
have been deemed unconstitutional; creating a new crime of
embezzlement related to the wilful and fraudulent misuse of a
power of attorney or other fiduciary relationship; and
providing that such crimes of embezzlement or fraudulent
conversion to be punishable as larceny.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §61-3-20 of the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted; and that said code be amended by adding
thereto a new section, designated §61-3-20a, all to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 3. CRIMES AGAINST PROPERTY.
§61-3-20. Embezzlement.
If any officer, agent, clerk or servant of this state, or of any county, district, school district or municipal corporation, or
of any banking institution, or other corporation, or any officer of
public trust in this state, or any agent, clerk or servant of any
firm or person, or company or association of persons not
incorporated, embezzles or fraudulently converts to his own use,
bullion, money, bank notes, drafts, security for money, or any
effects or property of any other person, which shall have come into
his possession, or been placed under his care or management, by
virtue of his office, place or employment, he shall be guilty of
the larceny thereof. If such guilty person be an officer, agent,
clerk or servant of any banking institution, he shall be guilty of
a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be imprisoned in the
penitentiary not less than ten years. And it shall not be
necessary to describe in the indictment, or to identify upon the
trial, the particular bullion, money, bank note, draft or security
for money which is so taken, converted to his own use or embezzled
by him.
And whenever any officer, agent, clerk or servant of this
state, or of any county, district, school district or municipal
corporation, shall appropriate or use for his own benefit, or for
the benefit of any other person, any bullion, money, bank notes,
drafts, security for money or funds belonging to this state or to
any such county, district, school district or municipal
corporation, he shall be held to have embezzled the same and be
guilty of the larceny thereof. In the prosecution of any such
officer, agent, clerk or servant of this state or of any county, district, school district or municipal corporation charged with
appropriation or use for his own benefit or the benefit of any
other person, any bullion, money, bank notes, drafts, security for
money or funds belonging to this state or to any county, district,
school district or municipal corporation, it shall not be necessary
to describe in the indictment, or to identify upon the trial, the
particular bullion, money, bank notes, drafts, security for money
or funds appropriated or used for his own benefit or for the
benefit of any other person.
§61-3-20a. Embezzlement by misuse of power of attorney or other
fiduciary relationship; penalty.
Any person who holds a fiduciary power of attorney or who has
a fiduciary relationship with a person and in so doing wilfully and
with intent to defraud embezzles, misappropriates or fraudulently
converts for his or her own benefit, or for the benefit of another,
the assets or property, real or personal, with which he or she has
been entrusted, or misuses or misappropriates funds from the person
to whom he or she owes a fiduciary duty or misuses any account,
line of credit or credit card of the principal for purposes not
contemplated by the terms of the power of attorney instrument or
fiduciary relationship, or for purposes not intended by the
principal in the execution of the power of attorney or for purposes
not intended by the fiduciary relationship, shall be held to have
embezzled the same and, upon conviction, shall be deemed guilty of
the larceny thereof.