February 14, 2025
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White-collar crimes and prosecutions are now becoming the order of the day. Almost everyone is in disbelief as big names are topping the charts. This is a crime committed by respectful people in the corporate world, led by greed and deceitful traits. They definitely have an insatiable appetite for financial gain and sidestepping rules.

Types of White Collar Crimes

The common types of white-collar crimes are financial fraud, embezzlement of public funds, insurance fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion. Moreover, according to Winter Park, FL Criminal Defense Attorney, some specific scams or frauds are still under white-collar crimes, which include money schemes, such as Ponzi or even securities frauds, for example, Insider trades.

The following is an overview of the types of white-collar crimes:

  • Securities fraud: 

This may come in different flavors. Still, a common one is the insider trade where a party with crucial insider company information (confidential information), uses this information to trade against their obligation or duty. 

  • Insurance scheme: 

This is a type of white-collar crime where an individual can create a scheme where he or she inappropriately collects on an insurance policy after they had provided false application data. This can also be extended to the defrauding of customers.

  • Ponzi scheme: 

This has been one of the most popular types of white-collar crimes that have had millions of investors losing their money to fraudsters. In Ponzi schemes, investors are lured into investing their money in pyramid type of schemes that end up collapsing, leaving the defrauded investors with no money to earn out of it. 

  • Embezzlement of public funds: 

This is a white-collar crime where an individual employed in an office of public duty misuses public money, for example, for personal benefit or miscellaneously. Some employees steal money from their employees and direct them to their personal accounts, which is embezzlement. This also includes attorneys misusing client money.

  • Tax evasion: 

This is also another common white-collar crime where executives of large companies may avoid paying taxes that they owe. This can include filing tax forms that contain false or wrong information or illegitimately transferring property to avoid tax obligations.

  • Money laundering: 

This is an illegal activity where one attempts to filter illegally acquired money through a sequence of transactions aimed to make the stolen money appear legitimate. White-collar crimes involve three steps:

Step 1: Depositing the stolen money into a bank or brokerage firm.

Step 2: Taking the stolen money through complex transactions to make it difficult to trace or trackback.

Step 3: Integrating the stolen or dirty money into clean money, for example, by buying or selling assets.

Real-Life Examples of White Collar Crimes

Just recently, a college admission scandal hit the airwaves of Hollywood, where a string of executives was accused of bribing administrators in windfalls to have their children admitted to the best colleges. Besides, a case of State Police in Massachusetts, receiving payment for times they spent away from work, is nothing new. As if it is not enough, the pharmaceutical executives of Insys were recently found guilty of pushing opioids. And Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign chairperson, was early this year, sentenced to almost seven years in prison for financial fraud.

The million-dollar question is: when did all these good people start going wrong? Some will say that they live in an illusion of invulnerability, which is why they commit all manner of crimes with impunity. Others claim that they know that their sentence will always be nothing more than a slap in the wrist.

Is it Greed, Entitlement, or Lack of Oversight?

We have been accustomed to Ponzi schemes, frauds, including embezzlement of public funds. Many of these examples have been driven by greed only. According to Winter Park, FL Criminal Defense Attorney, the trend witnessed in the present-day world is founded on entitlement and an apparent lack of oversight. 

Everyone wants more than they already have, while others steal or embezzle funds because everyone else is doing it. Another group of people does it because there is an open opportunity to do so. In many cases, white-collar crimes are common in sectors where the perpetrators are highly trusted and revered in the community.

Learning institutions, such as the case of colleges that allowed wealthy executives to bribe the administrators, are as well liable. They can be blamed for failing to set proper systems that would have prevented bribing in the wrongful admission of students. This means that the administrators had an easy time to admit students improperly. 

Equally, the State Police are expected to have a robust oversight system that would prevent police officers from receiving pay for days that they did not come to work. But they failed, which makes them accountable as well.

The pharmaceutical executives are also liable for failure to protect the needs of the patients. Instead, they choose to push illegal drugs (opioids), meaning that they accepted to take part in white-collar crime. This clearly shows that the executives were taken through a test that they could not handle.

One may say that it is absurd that a lot of white-collar crimes are witnessed today more than it was in the past, where many people were careful not to bend the rules. The present-day executives and management leaders are taking the lead in unethical practices, including fraud and corruption that are captured daily in media. Unfortunately, the people that the entire society has trusted the most are the ones mentioned in the headlines. 

Still, it is possible to find yourself incriminated in a white-collar crime that you know nothing about or one that you have no involvement at all. Getting out of this mess can be difficult.

Get an Experienced Attorney Now

Are you charged with a white-collar criminal offense? It is definitely the right time to get an attorney with sufficient experience dealing with white-collar crimes. White-collar crimes may include Federal laws with different types of punishments. A qualified and experienced attorney can aid you in navigating through criminal liability, including defenses in place.

Get started now and get Michael J. Snure, P.A – a Winter Park, FL criminal defense attorney that you and your loved ones can count on!