P. v. Galliher
It is axiomatic that, as here, the trustee of a trust may be found guilty of embezzling trust funds or assets. The law of embezzlement is not so much concerned with who has legal title to money or property, but with whether the defendant's use of money or property violated the purposes for which the defendant was entrusted with the money or property. Here, the record shows the defendant took large sums of money for his personal use from three family trusts for which he served as trustee. Because there is no dispute the defendant acted outside the purposes for which he was given control over the trusts' assets, there is sufficient evidence to support his theft convictions. We reject defendant's argument his convictions for theft from the trusts must be reversed because in civil proceedings a trust, as opposed to a trustee, lacks the capacity to sue or be sued. That circumstance is entirely unrelated to defendant's breach of trust and hence it has no bearing on defendant's culpability for the crime of embezzlement.
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