Let's look then at a few explanations of such misappropriation:
Embezzlement involves taking property that you already possess, but do not own. With embezzlement, a person who is entrusted to manage or control someone else's property(or that of a corporate entity) uses that property inappropriately, and to the person's own benefit. An employee who uses company property for his personal projects commits embezzlement. Embezzlement can encompass both money and other forms of property.
Misappropriation.Misappropriation of funds is embezzlement of money only. For example, the treasurer of a club who diverts club funds to his own bank account has both embezzled and misappropriated the money.
When prosecutors bring a charge of misappropriation, they must convince a judge or jury that the following happened or is true:
Control but not ownership.The prosecutor must show that the owner of the property, whether it's a person, organization, or group, entrusted or gave the money to the defendant, or otherwise allowed the defendant control over it. In short, the defendant rightfully had possession, but not ownership.
Intent.First, a person must knowingly misappropriate the money, and cannot commit the crime by making a mistake or error. A person who misappropriates funds doesn't have to intend to actually physically take the money. It can be enough for a prosecutor to show that the accused intended to take any action that results (or would likely result) in the misappropriation of funds. In some states, the accused must know the action is illegal; while in others, the accused only has to act intentionally and does not need to know that the conduct is criminal(I believe the second applies to California criminal code but I'd need to check to be sure).
Conversion.In order to commit misappropriation of funds, a person must not only take the money but must use it for his own purposes. However, this doesn't require that the accused actually take the money and use it to buy something or otherwise spend it. Courts have held it's enough to transfer the money to a bank account or even to refuse or fail to hand over the owner's money when the owner demands it.
Return.A person who misappropriates funds with the intent to later return the money to the rightful owner is still guilty of misappropriation. It also doesn't matter if the misappropriation only lasted for a short amount of time.
Pick which one fits Brad's misappropriation of the funds:
A. Taking 45k or more from the project there by crippling it and declaring at the time, that the project was on hold.
B. Taking 45k+ with statements that it was for a pay advance of 5 months.
C. Taking 45k+ and making statements concerning said advance that it would be "paid back", implying that they shouldn't have taken it.
D. Taking 45k+ and declaring this week that it was for back pay (thus under false pretenses with statement B) and not addressing previous statements of the why's contrary to this previously.
E. Taking 45k+ without using officially cutting a payroll check for the money taken as required by incorporated companies.
F. A mix of some of the above.
G. All of the above.