White-Collar Criminal Defense

While the majority of people assume white-collar crimes are simply advanced theft crimes, these offenses typically involve numerous subtle elements and are worlds apart from shoplifting or smash-and-grab robbery cases.

White-collar crimes include:

Embezzlement

Typically, this involves exerting or obtaining unauthorized control over property — effectively blurring the line between “authorized” and “unauthorized”. For example, a company head may clearly establish authorized company credit card use, but fail to provide guidelines regarding unauthorized use.

Bribery

Historically, this offense has been narrowly defined by the courts — a good example being the infamous Rod Blagojevich case. The disgraced, former governor insinuated that government offices, such as senate seats, could be sold to the highest bidders. The bribery charges against him would not have held up in court had he merely stopped at the insinuation. Instead, he proceeded to request specific items, such as cabinet or ambassador appointments — essentially ensuring his prosecution.

Fraud

Put simply, fraud is a misrepresentation of current material facts for illegal gain. The most common examples are bank fraud, bankruptcy fraud, healthcare fraud, and tax fraud. It’s often difficult to distinguish between unintentional mistakes and intentional misrepresentation, as the law does not require individuals to correct the incorrect assumptions of others. For example, if Person A says they work at the bank and Person B assumes that Person A is the bank’s president, it is unlikely Person A attempted to defraud Person B.

Trade Secret Theft

The misappropriation of private corporate information for financial gain, these prosecutions are often reliant on trade secret knowledge. For example, if a person leaves a report on their desk or places an unsecured file on a thumb drive, it is arguable that information therein would no longer be considered a “secret”.

Money Laundering

While this offense is typically associated with complex schemes involving immense sums of money and international shell corporations, these scenarios are anomalies. Far more prevalent are money laundering prosecutions based upon smaller transactions, such as unusual cash transactions and questionable prepaid debit card purchases. Another common misconception is that suspected money launderers are familiar with the full details of the criminal enterprise — the vast majority have no intimate knowledge of such matters.