The Short Answer

If your business partner is taking money in Florida, you have real claims and real remedies, but the outcome will be decided by evidence and speed more than by outrage. A partner who diverts company funds, pays personal expenses from the business, or routes revenue to a side entity is exposed to serious civil claims, and Florida courts can order the money traced, the books opened, and the conduct stopped. The mistake owners make is confronting first and collecting later. The sequence that works is the reverse: quietly preserve the proof, understand the full picture, then move once, hard, on paper.

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Aaron Resnick handles breach of fiduciary duty claims for business owners across Florida, as part of the firm's partnership and shareholder disputes practice. Read more about Aaron Resnick.

Why the Confrontation Comes Last

The confrontation comes last because it is the moment evidence starts disappearing. The day your partner learns you know, statements get cleaned up, transfers get explanations, and access you counted on gets revoked. Before that day, gather what you can lawfully reach: bank records, the accounting file, invoices, and the messages where the story shows. Write a timeline with dates and amounts while memory is sharp. Florida law gives owners tools to force the rest into the open, including records demands and, where the numbers do not reconcile, a court supervised accounting, and those tools work best when your side of the file is already built.

When the Answer May Be Different

The answer gets complicated when the money has an argument behind it. Partners sometimes take what they call salary, management fees, reimbursements, or draws against profit, and whether those are theft or compensation depends on the agreement, the history, and the numbers. A partner with signing authority spending on the business's behalf is different from one running personal life through the company account, though the line gets crossed constantly. This is why the analysis starts with the documents and the ledger, not the label. Sometimes the records show less theft than feared. Sometimes they show far more.

What to Do Now

Preserve first: download and copy every financial record you can lawfully access today, before access changes. Do not tip your hand, do not delete or alter anything yourself, and do not drain accounts defensively, which converts your strong position into a mutual mess. Note what you have seen with dates and amounts. Then get counsel involved quickly to map the claims, secure the records you cannot reach, and decide whether the first move is a demand, an accounting action, or an emergency filing to stop ongoing bleeding.

Quantify as you go. A running spreadsheet of suspect transactions, date, amount, payee, why it looks wrong, turns a feeling of betrayal into a case file, and it tells counsel immediately how big this is and where the accounting should dig first. Estimates are fine to start. Precision comes once the full records are forced open.

Related Questions

Should I report it to the police instead?

Taking from a company you co own is usually fought as a civil matter, and civil court is where you recover money and control. Whether any conduct also warrants a criminal referral is a judgment call to make with counsel, after the evidence is secured, not before.

The money is going to an LLC my partner secretly owns. Does that matter?

It matters a great deal. Self dealing through affiliated entities is one of the clearest patterns Florida courts recognize in these cases, and the related company's records become part of the fight. Note every entity name, vendor, and payee that looks connected.

How far back can we go?

Time limits apply and vary by claim, which is a reason to act rather than watch. Older conduct can still matter as pattern and context even where recovery focuses on the recent years, and the clock questions get answered precisely once counsel sees the dates.

This post is general information, not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney client relationship with the Law Offices of Aaron Resnick, P.A. Every dispute turns on its own facts, documents, and deadlines.