Examples Of White Collar Crimes
Crimes that are committed in a professional or business setting are referred to as white collar crimes. Usually, the main objective of such a crime is financial gain by causing loss to another party. These crimes are non-violent, but have the potential to cause a lot of financial damage to the victims. White collar crimes are considered felonies and the penalty can range from a hefty fine, jail time, or both. In some cases, other penalties may also be levied based on the gravity of the crime. Some examples of white collar crimes are highlighted below. |
The most common white collar crime is fraud. This can be an insurance fraud, securities fraud or healthcare fraud. Other types of fraud include mail fraud, tax fraud, telemarketing fraud and internet fraud. Identity theft and credit card fraud are also viewed as white collar crimes.
While most of us may not think of police corruption as a white collar crime, but it is categorized as one. Even corruption in the government or political circles is viewed as white collar crime. Other examples include bribery, conspiracy, extortion and money laundering.
A white collar crime can be committed by a single person, public official or even an employee of the law enforcement agency.
Many times, businesses are faced with white collar crimes. They may end up finding an employee from the Finance Department embezzling money. This crime may only come to notice after several years. However, the business entity can take actions against the perpetrator.
Other examples of white collar crime are perjury, computer hacking, counterfeiting and forgery. It is common for ordinary people to find out from various news media that high profile corporate executives have been found guilty of insider trading, stashing away millions overseas or disappearing with the shareholders’ monies. All these are nothing but white collar crimes.
As these crimes are committed by people labeled as white collar executives, they are known as white collar crimes. Usually people who commit these crimes are thought of rich and upstanding citizens. While these crimes are not done using violence, they have the potential of wreaking havoc in the community’s economy. People can go bankrupt or lose all their savings because of single white collar crime. The economic loss to the society and country can run into billions of dollars because of these crimes.
In the year 2006, Jeffrey Skilling, the chief executive of Enron, was convicted of insider trading, conspiracy and fraud. He was a perpetrator of a white collar crime that saw him receiving jail time of 24 years. Another high profile personality convicted of white collar crime was Bernard Ebbers, who was a telecommunications company’s chief executive. He was involved in a multi-billion dollar scam and he even falsified the financial records of the company. He was convicted in the year 2005 and was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison.
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Examples Of White Collar Crimes
White collar crime is a criminal offence which scares most defendants since the penalties levied are heavy. The insecurity of their future after leading a good lifestyle and probable conversion of the offence as a civil lawsuit makes the consequences worse when convicted. These lawsuits can be filed by offended victims, state or federal government. The sentence post civil case will be in addition to those awarded on criminal charges. 
