White collar crime is prevalent in todays society. However, being accused of a white collar crime does not necessarily equal guilt. That is why you need a white collar criminal defense attorney. Call our office to speak with a white collar crimes attorney about the best white collar crime defense available for your case. The most common white collar crimes that are committed are the following:
• Fraud
• Embezzlement
• Tax evasion
• Money laundering.
White collar crime comes in two distinctive forms. The two types of white collar crime fall under the criminal categories of occupational and corporate.
Occupational White Collar Crimes
Individual Occupational Crime
These are crimes by individuals as individuals for profit or other gain. Activities such as, stealing company equipment, filing false expense reports or falsifying bank records would fall into this category.
Professional Occupational Crime
Professional occupational crimes are those crimes committed by professionals in their professional occupation. A common example of a professional crime would be the instance where a doctor might double bill an insurance company to gain more profits.
State Authority Occupational Crime
State Authority Occupational Crime are crimes by officials through the authority of the office. This category of crimes is restricted to those holding public office and their employees. An example would be if a County Clerk would accept a bribe in return for a political favors.
Corporate White Collar Crime
Corporate crime would be a crime committed by:
• A corporation
• Individuals acting on behalf of a corporation
• Individuals acting on behalf of a business entity
However, it should be noted that some negative behaviors by corporations may not actually be criminal, though morally suspect. Corporate crime overlaps with: white-collar crime, because the majority of individuals who may act as or represent the interests of the corporation are white-collar professionals; organized crime, because criminals may set up corporations either for the purposes of crime or as vehicles for laundering the proceeds of crime.
A White Collar Crime Defense
Unfortunately, individuals consistently deal with fighting white collar criminal charges and as a white collar criminal defense attorney, our job is to provide you with the best criminal defenses. Here are some of the more common white-collar crime defenses used by our team when we are working for our clients.
Lack of Intent Defense
Many criminal charges require prosecutors to prove criminal intent. As an example, it is possible that a person makes a large mistake on their tax filing, bringing them a benefit. However, it is obvious that the mistake was unintentional. This could be an instance of a lack of intent and thus a defense to an allegation of tax fraud.
Entrapment
Entrapment is one of the most common white-collar criminal defenses Often, when the police suspects an individual or group of individuals of criminal activity, they will attempt to set up a sting operation to catch the suspect red-handed. This is a common tactic. However, if the defense team can prove that the officers or informants involved induced the criminal activity through their behavior, then that is considered entrapment.
If the defendant is being accused of giving fraudulent information to an accusing party, the defendant may be able to prove that the accusing party acted unreasonably simply because of an opinion expressed by the defendant. The defendant made a non-fraudulent statement that the accuser mistook for fraud when it didn’t benefit them.
Incapacity Mental Defense
If the defendant had the inability, due to either physical or mental incapacity, to understand or comprehend the nature of the alleged criminal acts, then their white-collar attorney may be able to assert the defense of incapacity as a possible defense to a this white collar crime.
Intoxication Defense
In some cases, proving intoxication at the time of the accused crime means the defendant was presumably, somehow not in full control of his or her actions. When a defendant can show that they were intoxicated at the time of the offense, they sometimes assert this as their entire defense to the criminal charges. Generally what happens most, however, defendants use this information as a form of bargaining in an attempt to get a stronger plea that would allow, for a lesser offense or sentence.