What Is a White Collar Crime?

At the Law Offices of Anthony Carbone, we have three primary areas of practice. They include personal injury, family law, and criminal defense matters.

Within the practice of criminal defense, our team is known for its aggressive defense of complex criminal offenses. Some of these offenses are considered “white collar” crimes. Do you know what that term means? Don’t worry, we will explain it in-depth throughout this article.

A “white collar” crime is a financially motivated crime committed by businesses or government personnel that benefit the individual(s) who committed the offense. These types of crimes are usually non-violent in nature.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a “white collar” crime is characterized by concealment, deceit, and a violation of trust. The more specific motivations for these crimes are to obtain or avoid losing financial capital, property, or certain business/personal services that could lead to an individual’s advantage.

These crimes might be non-violent, but there are still victims even though the focus is on the induvial who committed the crime. A single act can destroy a business, ravage an employee’s or former employee’s life savings, and possibly cost investors millions to billions of dollars. With business and technology evolving all the time, these types of crimes can be hard to detect. In some instances, entities that commit “white collar” crimes create a paper trail that could lead the wrong person(s) entirely.

The types of “white collar” crimes that a person, business, or government personnel can commit include:

• Fraud
• Identity Theft
• Embezzlement
• Forgery
• Bribery
• Ponzi schemes
• Copyright infringement
• Insider trading
• Money Laundering

The above-mentioned list should give you a good idea of what is considered under this type of offense. Fraud, and the crimes stemming from it, are considered the most common type of “white collar” crime. An average business loses more than nine dollars per day per employee to fraud. That might not seem like an enormous amount of money, but do the math for your company. It adds up to being a big loss for a business.

Those committing “white collar” crimes know the risks, but their goal is to never get caught. That’s why many people can get caught up in the mess.

Don’t let that happen to you. Contact the criminal defense team at the Law Offices of Anthony Carbone if you have been charged for a “white collar” crime. We’ll defend you against the blame you have wrongfully received.

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