N.Y. PEN Law § 155.05 — New York Code / Act PEN / Part 3 / Title J / Article 155 / Section 155.05
Larceny; defined
Status: in_force

§ 155.05 Larceny; defined.\n  1. A person steals property and commits larceny when, with intent to\ndeprive another of property or to appropriate the same to himself or to\na third person, he wrongfully takes, obtains or withholds such property\nfrom an owner thereof.\n  2. Larceny includes a wrongful taking, obtaining or withholding of\nanother's property, with the intent prescribed in subdivision one of\nthis section, committed in any of the following ways:\n  (a) By conduct heretofore defined or known as common law larceny by\ntrespassory taking, common law larceny by trick, embezzlement, or\nobtaining property by false pretenses;\n  (b) By acquiring lost property.\n  A person acquires lost property when he exercises control over\nproperty of another which he knows to have been lost or mislaid, or to\nhave been delivered under a mistake as to the identity of the recipient\nor the nature or amount of the property, without taking reasonable\nmeasures to return such property to the owner;\n  (c) By committing the crime of issuing a bad check, as defined in\nsection 190.05;\n  (d) By false promise.\n  A person obtains property by false promise when, pursuant to a scheme\nto defraud, he obtains property of another by means of a representation,\nexpress or implied, that he or a third person will in the future engage\nin particular conduct, and when he does not intend to engage in such\nconduct or, as the case may be, does not believe that the third person\nintends to engage in such conduct.\n  In any prosecution for larceny based upon a false promise, the\ndefendant's intention or belief that the promise would not be performed\nmay not be established by or inferred from the fact alone that such\npromise was not performed. Such a finding may be based only upon\nevidence establishing that the facts and circumstances of the case are\nwholly consistent with guilty intent or belief and wholly inconsistent\nwith innocent intent or belief, and excluding to a moral certainty every\nhypothesis except that of the defendant's intention or belief that the\npromise would not be performed;\n  (e) By extortion.\n  A person obtains property by extortion when he compels or induces\nanother person to deliver such property to himself or to a third person\nby means of instilling in him a fear that, if the property is not so\ndelivered, the actor or another will:\n  (i) Cause physical injury to some person in the future; or\n  (ii) Cause damage to property; or\n  (iii) Engage in other conduct constituting a crime; or\n  (iv) Accuse some person of a crime or cause criminal charges or\nremoval proceedings to be instituted against him or her; or\n  (v) Expose a secret or publicize an asserted fact, whether true or\nfalse, tending to subject some person to hatred, contempt or ridicule;\nor\n  (vi) Cause a strike, boycott or other collective labor group action\ninjurious to some person's business; except that such a threat shall not\nbe deemed extortion when the property is demanded or received for the\nbenefit of the group in whose interest the actor purports to act; or\n  (vii) Testify or provide information or withhold testimony or\ninformation with respect to another's legal claim or defense; or\n  (viii) Use or abuse his position as a public servant by performing\nsome act within or related to his official duties, or by failing or\nrefusing to perform an official duty, in such manner as to affect some\nperson adversely; or\n  (ix) Perform any other act which would not in itself materially\nbenefit the actor but which is calculated to harm another person\nmaterially with respect to such other person's health, safety, business,\ncalling, career, financial condition, reputation or personal\nrelationships;or\n  (f) By wage theft.\n  A person obtains property by wage theft when such person hires a\nperson to perform services and the person performs such services and the\nperson does not pay wages, at the minimum wage rate and overtime, or\npromised wage, if greater than the minimum wage rate and overtime, to\nsaid person for work performed. In a prosecution for wage theft, for the\npurposes of venue, it is permissible to aggregate all nonpayments or\nunderpayments to one person from one person, into one larceny count,\neven if the nonpayments or underpayments occurred in multiple counties.\nIt is also permissible to aggregate nonpayments or underpayments from a\nworkforce into one larceny count even if such nonpayments or\nunderpayments occurred in multiple counties; or\n  (g) By deed theft. A person commits deed theft when such person:\n  (i) Intentionally alters, falsifies, forges, or misrepresents any\nwritten instrument involved in the conveyance or financing of real\nproperty, such as a residential or commercial deed or title, with the\nintent to deceive, defraud, or unlawfully transfer or encumber the\nownership rights or a portion thereof of a residential or commercial\nproperty; or\n  (ii) with intent to defraud, misrepresents themselves as the owner or\nauthorized representative of residential or commercial real property to\ninduce others to rely on such false information in order to obtain\nownership or possession of such real property; or\n  (iii) with intent to defraud, takes, obtains, or transfers title or\nownership of real property by fraud, misrepresentation, forgery,\nlarceny, false pretenses, false promise, or any other fraudulent or\ndeceptive practice.\n