Frauds committed by professionals in business and government are called white collar crimes. The consequence is disastrous to a company, to families by snuffing out their life savings, or to investors divesting them billions of dollars. Due to the sophisticated life style of today, more sophisticated fraud scheme are brought to the fore. Authorities are using their skills to capture the culprits and stop scams before they start.

Common white collar crimes:

These wide ranges of illegal acts are committed through deceit and aimed solely for financial gain. White collar crimes are committed in government and business, in the form of embezzlement, fraud, money laundering and tax evasion.

Handling these offenses is the Federal Bureau of Investigation, so it is clear that penalties can be very serious. If charged with financial federal crime, get a legal professional to handle your defense.

White collar offenses:

Some offenses under white collar crime come in different forms and penalties.

Bribery is found in the action of an individual offering favors, gifts or money to a public official pr person of authority in exchange for benefits. Depending on the value of the transaction, it may be considered a misdemeanor or felony. Both giver and receiver are charged and if found guilty are fine at least equal to the amount of the bribe and the official is dismissed from public service during his life time.

Embezzlement is committed when a person is entrusted with certain amount funds and the amount is mismanaged or misappropriated for personal gain. It is used by the person for his own profit and not for the purpose intended.

Fraud is committed when an individual deceives another to gain a profit or damage someone. According to 42 USC § 1011, fraud conviction includes a fine and imprisonment for up to 5 years. It includes frauds in: bank, credit cards, identity, healthcare, insurance and securities.

Tax evasion is a white collar crime where a perpetrator tries not to pay the right amount of tax and the deceit that starts by giving false information in tax forms to transferring property illegally so as to avoid tax obligations.

Money laundering is illegally filtering money obtained using a series transactions to make the money appear legitimate. Three steps involved: (1) the money is deposited typically into a financial institution as a bank or brokerage; (2) money is separated from its illegal origin by layers of complicated transactions, making it difficult to trace the origin of the funds; (3) in the integration, the money already cleared from a series of transactions is mixed with legally obtained money, often through the purchase or sale of assets.

Penalties:

Penalties for this type of charges vary; most charges are for monetary fine or prison sentence or combination of both. Maximum penalties are often quite severe; although courts often follow sentencing guidelines depending on the jurisdiction to ensure that criminal sentences are uniform. The sentencing judge is given very little discretion on the sentence imposed. The guidelines consider the crime for which the defendant has been convicted, and any prior criminal record of the defendant.

Defendants who do not have outstanding criminal record receive probation, or a jail sentence that will be suspended, or a shorter than maximum jail sentence. They may also pay fines and required to give up any profits or make restitution payment to their victims.

Philadelphia white collar crime attorney

Like other big cities with its extravagant life style, Philadelphia is proliferated with white collar crimes. When you are charged with a white collar crime, you are facing very serious offense so you need to defend yourself in the best possible style. Your best option is to consult aggressive criminal defense attorneys. Visit our office and you will get the best defense to face your charges.