“The requirement that the defendant act with the intent to deprive the owner of his property makes embezzlement a specific intent crime.”
Meaning your safe as long as your intent is not to steal the money.
But if your concerned definitely ask your lawyer. (Accountant won’t be able to provide that sort of legal advice)
You should absolutely talk to your CFO, board, accountant, and lawyer before taking such a drastic step.
the legal system is not black and white. You go to court and there’s a judge and possibly a jury that hears your story, and decides if what you did deserves punishment.
Attempting to safeguard your company’s assets hours before a bank’s potential collapse will garner sympathy from just about everyone.
I understand your points; but people banking with SVB may not be able to run this month’s payroll if they don’t move their money. That will cause more problems than anything else we’re talking about right now.
Unfortunately a bank run is very likely due to VCs mass emailing portfolio companies. I hate to be yet another person promoting this, but it’s always best to be the first ones out during a collapse.
It’s very easy to prove good intent when you didn’t benefit in any way. Besides, it’s the prosecution’s burden to improve intent, not the defendant’s.
Transferring $10 million to a personal account for 1 day then transferring again to a permanent business account a day later has zero legal risk when the bank you’re moving away from is literally collapsing.
If you move company funds in one blob from SVB to Personal account, and then move the same blob from Personal account to Bank XYZ, and document the process, you'll be fine.
Of course, you can use your personal account for a while until you setup another business account (which you should have at least a couple if you are well funded) but while it's technically not illegal, it can massively complicate your accounting later.
> Embezzlement is using company funds for your own personal gain.
AFAIK, the criteria for embezzlement is much broader than "personal gain." You have to take possession (rightfully), but do something with it (unrightfully).
I can see an argument that the scenario of an employee taking its money from SVB and putting in another bank IS embezzlement if this is done without the CFO/officer's consent. In practical terms, you're probably fine as long as you're trying to act in best interests. [1]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embezzlement [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_(law)