A fraud defense lawyer is a legal representative who is defending a client accused of a white collar crime. Some examples include embezzlement, tax ev...
A fraud defense lawyer is a legal representative who is defending a client accused of a white collar crime. Some examples include embezzlement,
tax evasion, intellectual property theft, organized crime, money laundering, insurance fraud or extortion. Many of these criminal offenses are perpetrated by individuals who are in white collar positions or professions. Typical white collar jobs include doctors, engineers, accountants, business managers or bookkeepers. These offenses aren’t usually connected with drugs or violence but still are considered to be serious offenses. Here are some things to think about:
Embezzlement: Embezzlement is a theft that occurs between two individuals who have a bond of trust between them. This is different than a stranger robbing a stranger. An example would be an investment manager who siphoned off cash from profits for personal use.
- Tax evasion: Not paying taxes to the government for any reason can be considered evasion. Taxes on property, income and businesses must be paid by each and every citizen.
- Intellectual property theft: These items are relatively intangible and make for complex cases. Examples include ideas, logos, designs, music, art, recipes or formulas.
- Organized crime: Many crimes come under the heading of “organized.” Some examples include kidnapping, racketeering, gambling, rings of prostitution, and more.
- Money laundering: To launder money is to clean it up in terms of where it came from. Often this is to avoid paying taxes or to hide criminal activities. It is usually done in a series of steps including depositing cash or small amounts into multiple bank accounts. Some of these accounts may be international rather than in the same country.
- Insurance fraud: There are different forms of insurance fraud but all include someone bilking money from an insurance company that isn’t rightfully theirs. Some examples may be doctors billing an insurance company for a treatment that didn’t occur or a person collecting life insurance on someone who didn’t die.
- Extortion: To extort something from someone, some sort of abuse, threat or bullying occurs in order to force a person to turn over property or money.
White collar crimes have serious consequences including parole, probation, imprisonment, loss of professional licensure, enforced therapeutic counseling, paying back funds, stiff penalties, fines and community service. One or more of these penalties may be handed out in a court sentence. Loss of reputation is another occurrence that frequently occurs especially in high profile cases followed by the media.
If a person is accused of any of these crimes, he or she must employ a savvy fraud defense lawyer as soon as possible. Some defense tactics that may be used include proving that the police didn’t use proper arrest methods, discrediting opposing witnesses, providing proof that the crimes didn’t occur, disputing the opposite sides’ theories, and casting doubt on the prosecutions’ story. If a citizen is arrested for a white collar crime such as embezzlement, tax evasion, intellectual property theft, organized crimes, money laundering, insurance fraud or extortion, he or she needs to call a fraud defense lawyer for representation.
