What Are White Collar Crimes?

Not all crimes involve physical injuries or deadly weapons. Some crimes are committed without the victim feeling or recognizing it at first glance. 

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White collar crimes are criminal acts that mostly involve money, banks, and businesses. These offenses are done primarily for financial gain of the criminal. Often, these cases are difficult to prosecute because technical or sophisticated systems usually mask them. They may also involve a huge network of people. These financial crimes may be in the form of fraud, embezzlement, tax evasion, and money laundering, among others. 

Fraud: Most white collar crimes involve fraudulent financial activities and products. It may be an investment fraud, a securities fraud, false statement, or a bank scam among others. 

Embezzlement: Embezzlement is the illegal obtainment of money from a person to whom someone owes a kind of duty. An example would be an employee who embezzles money from his company by using client funds for his personal gain. 

Tax evasion: Tax evasion is considered a white collar crime. Examples of which are avoiding taxes, filing with incorrect or false information, or illegally transferring documents and tax responsibilities to another individual or firm. An individual, as well as a business, can commit tax evasion. 

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Money laundering: Money laundering is the act of filtering illegally obtained money through different transactions that make the activity appear legitimate. Such elaborate scheme can involve individuals as well as institutions such as banks and corporations. 

Michael J. Donohue is a criminal defense lawyer who runs his own firm, DONOHUE LAW, in Allentown, PA. For more on Atty. Donohue’s practice, visit this website.