You have been hired as a forensic accountant to investigate a potential case of employee embezzlement at a company. You discover that an employee has been stealing money from the company by creating fake expense reports and reimbursing themselves for non-existent expenses.

You analyze the company's expense data and find that the employee has submitted fake expense reports totaling $20,000 over the past year. Additionally, you discover that the employee has been reimbursed for expenses that were not actually incurred, totaling $5,000.

Using this information, calculate the total amount of money that the employee has embezzled from the company and explain how you arrived at your answer.