Legal Question in Business Law in New York

This scenario describes the tort of "breach of fiduciary duty" and you would have to prove that the employee's role was one that had such a duty. In most cases, that duty is held to persons at a Management, Director, Officer level and not simply an employee. Evidence that the employee is paid salary, files a W2, operates with very little management (not via negligent supervision but that the job itself requires autonomy), bonuses are available for excellent work, other fringe benefits, etc. would all prove that there was a duty to take care of the business.

If the matter involves $20,000 an attorney should definitely be consulted. The statute of limitations for a case like this is likely two years from the date you discovered the breach of duty, but again an attorney should be consulted with specific facts in order to ascertain whether a breach occurred and whether the statute of limitations has ady passed.