Have you ever heard of the phrase “a top white collar crime?” There is an interesting history behind it. The phrase itself is the creation of criminologist Edwin Sutherland. In the late 1930’s, most people believed theft to be associated with the poor. You see, less than 2% of crimes came from the upper class. Sociologists concluded that crime was a result of broken families, slum neighborhoods, feeblemindedness, and psychopathic deviations.

But then there comes Sutherland, and his revolutionary outlook on crime. He believed that people are biased and unaware of one key aspect. What is it? It’s the fact that many of these crimes took place in plain sight for the world to see! It makes you think, what about hidden crimes?

Committing A White Collar Crime

Sutherland told the American Sociological Society in 1939, “The ‘robber barons’ of the last half of the 19th century were white-collar criminals.” He was talking about Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt confessed that his wealth was “ill-gotten.”

But its 2018, and things have changed. Thanks to tax havens and the Internet, it’s become easier to catch a top white-collar crime. Still, there are more and more ways for people to steal money, all while keeping respect. People will stash cash in untouchable islands, forge and deposit corporate checks, commit money laundering through prepaid debit cards, or even insider trading.

A Top White Collar Crime Story

Check fraud is a key example of a top white-collar crime. According to the Federal Reserve, around 17 billion checks were written in 2015. They had a value of roughly $24 trillion!

You’ve seen the film “Catch Me If You Can,” have you? The inspiration for the movie is Frank Abagnale. The film is purely a top white collar crime story. Abagnale spent the last 40 years trying to help combat forgery. He acts as a consultant to financial institutions and government agencies.

Abagnale says the best forgers “capture a corporate logo and maybe the front of the building — layer it in the background, and you can make a check 10 times better looking than the actual check.” It’s useful for both corporate theft and account takeovers.

The next step to this top white collar crime is the forger will call the company and ask to speak to someone in accounts. Why do they do this? Well, to explain that they want to wire money to the institution. They will typically be told where the institution does the banking, and the account and routing numbers. They add these numbers to the fake check!

What comes after that is they find someone in corporate communications to give them a press statement. Why? Because it includes the signature of the CEO and CFO! They’ll scan the press statement and print the signatures onto the check! Sounds a lot like the movie, doesn’t it?

More White Collar Crimes

The list of top white collar crimes goes on and on. Have you heard of pump and dump crimes? This is a common crime used today for cryptocurrency! Scammers invest a lot of money in an unknown currency. Then they spread the info on social media saying that someone famous and rich invested in it too. It’s basically fake news articles giving the currency credit. Then once the value peaks, they sell it! Because the scammer owns a majority of the currency, the price will plummet when they sell the holdings.

Then there’s money laundering, one of the most well-known top white collar crimes. The United Nations estimates $1.6 trillion in laundered money annually worldwide. According to Adam Braverman, a U.S. attorney for the South District of California, “Criminals understand that U.S. banking laws have become a lot stricter in the last several years.” Criminals will deposit a large amount of money in 10 or 20 different banks. To protect themselves, criminals will change-up their deposits, timing, and locations!

Another example of a top white-collar crime is insider trading. We’ve all heard that one before! Employees in publically held companies possess knowledge about their employers. Knowledge that they can illegally profit from! Most of the time, this knowledge isn’t even issued in news releases. But to avoid getting caught, criminals need to buy or sell stocks without being consistently accurate. If it’s too on the spot, it can raise red flags.

There’s also offshore tax haven. People try to keep their money away from a tax collector. So what do they do? They move it to a foreign country! What happens then is a lawyer can set up a shell corporation. With this company, phony services will be invoiced. That way everything on paper looks legitimate!

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If you, or someone you know, have any questions about white collar crimes or are in need of a criminal defense lawyer, talk to someone today here.