Which fraudulent act involves the misappropriation of funds entrusted to someone?

The fraudulent act that involves the misappropriation of funds entrusted to someone is embezzlement. This crime occurs when an individual, who has been given access to someone else's money or property, unlawfully takes or uses those funds for their personal gain. The key aspect of embezzlement is the breaching of trust, where the perpetrator is expected to act in the best interest of the owner of the funds but instead exploits that trust to illegally benefit themselves.

In contrast, while billing schemes might involve fraudulent invoicing and misallocating payments, they do not necessarily imply that the criminal had direct control over the funds. Check tampering usually refers to the unauthorized alteration of checks, which does not involve misappropriation of funds entrusted to an individual in the same direct manner as embezzlement. Financial fraud is a broader term that encompasses various illegal activities related to financial transactions and does not specifically denote the act of misappropriating entrusted funds. Therefore, embezzlement is the most precise term for the act described in the question.