Understanding the Details of White Collar Crimes

Business related financial crimes, commonly known as ‘white collar crimes’, involve activities like frauds, embezzlement, and so on. Accusation of such a crime can be a difficult thing to handle. Before you take any step, even before you talk to anyone about it, get in touch with an attorney to formulate your defense strategy.

Here is a brief overview of such crimes and other relevant details.

Which crimes classify as white collar crimes? As per the definition of Edwin Sutherland, individuals, with high social standing and respectability, who use the scope of their occupation to do this, commit these crimes. Some examples are fraud, money laundering, bribery, embezzlement, identity theft and such others.

Which federal agencies may be involved in the investigation? There are no specifications in this regard; however, the federal agencies that are more often part of the investigation are the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service, United States Treasury, Securities and Exchange Commission, and so on.

How do you know that there is an ongoing investigation? The most common situation is when a federal or state investigator contacts you for questioning or you get a ‘subject /target letter’ informing you about the investigation. However, there can be other circumstances too –

• You get a search and seizure warrant on the business records
  
• You get a grand jury subpoena to submit the business records
  
• You get a grand jury subpoena to testify in an ongoing investigation
  
  

Why is immediate legal counsel important? Consulting a qualified and experienced white collar crime attorney is imperative if you want to get out of the legal mess. Even before you talk to an investigator, discuss what to say, as well as what not to say, with an attorney. You may not realize that your statements could incriminate you later.

Proper formulation of the defense strategy is necessary for this. Your attorney can use various defenses. One of the common ones is entrapment – where your attorney needs to prove that you would otherwise not commit the crime if there were no enticement on the part of the government entities.

What are the penalties for such crimes? It is essential to prove that you did not commit the crime, or at least you were not aware of its criminality. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines can otherwise land you in a legal mess. A competent criminal defense attorney can help you avoid penalties like jail term, house detention, fines, forfeiture or restitution of assets, and such others.