Welcome to the age of white collar crime. A time when the words thieves and businessmen go hand in hand. White collar criminals don’t get their hands dirty in their work. They use their heads to get what they want instead of using a little muscle. These criminals are just as dangerous as the rapists and murderers. In these times, even the most seemingly respectable people are suspected of white collar crimes.
President Clinton and the first lady Hillary Clinton have been tangled up in the Whitewater and Travelgate business ventures. Although the two have not been formally charged with any wrongdoing, there is a committee currently investigating their dealings and charges are not out of the question for either of them. In Michael Isikoff’s and Mark Hosenball’s Newsweek article “Cracks in the Wall,” they describe the Clintons’ dealings with Whitewater and the possible consequences of them: “The Senate Whitewater committee is considering asking for perjury charges against Susan Thomas and Maggie Williams, Mrs. Clintons’ chief of staff, in connection with her testimony about the removal of documents from Vince Foster’s office” (Isikoff 29). This case goes to show that there presently a growing problem with our country, and it is called white collar crime. White collar crimes are very numerous in kind.
New ones are always being invented by someone with a good scam. Embezzlement, tax evasion, and fraud are some of the more popular kinds. A person who has the power of controlling money in a business is most likely commit embezzlement. A shortened definition of embezzlement is “to steal money that is entrusted to Phillips 2 one.” This is one of the fastest rising crimes in the nation. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, embezzlement rose thirty eight percent from 1984 to 1993 (U.S. Dept.
of Justice 239). Forgery is another growing form of white collar crime. This is defined as the act of imitating or counterfeiting documents or signatures for the purpose of deceiving someone. Forgery also shows the same growth trends as embezzlement.
From 1984 to 1993 forgery and counterfeiting increased twenty-one percent (U.S. Dept. of Justice 240). Bogus ads, job scams, and telephone scams are all examples of fraud. Basically these scams ask you to send money for something that is non-existent. An example of a telephone scam would be if someone called to ask for donations for a phony organization or charity.
White collar crime is a term created by Edwin Sutherland in 1939 that refers to crimes committed by people of higher social status, companies, and the government according to the book “White-Collar Crime in a Nutshell” by Ellen Podgor and Jerold Israel. White collar crimes are usually non-violent crimes committed in order to have a financial-gain (Podgor and Israel 3). A very well known white collar crime that has even been taught in many history classes is the Watergate scandal. This is a white collar crime that was committed by government authorities. Watergate was a crime that shocked the nation.
White-collar crime is the financially motivated illegal acts that are committed by the middle and upper class through their legitimate business or government activities. This form of crime was first coined by Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as “a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation.” (Linden, 2016). Crime has often been associated with the lower class due to economic reasons. However, Sutherland stressed that the Criminal Justice System needed to acknowledge illegal business activity as crime due to the repercussions they caused and the damage they can cause to society (Linden, 2016). Crime was prevalently thought to only be
The installment of new security could even be a problem, for people who operate these new security systems could also be a potential thief. There is an approach among many enterprises that it is simpler to easily excuse the employee who committed the offense, instead of dealing with the law and the officers; and follow through with the money and time by prosecuting in order to seek restitution. Sometimes the firm does not to acquire the negative publicity that has to do with the internal offense, especially when their reputation is predominant to their company model. White-collar crime is often categorized as a crime without a victim, damaging only large, objective corporations. Recent news broadcasts portray nothing could be farther from the absolute truth.
Most people consider this crime to consist of CEO’s manipulating their way to making a large fortune. This of course, is true most of the time in high-profile cases. For example, in late 2001 Enron Corporation executives confessed to overstating the company’s earnings. This lead to artificially inflating what the company was worth and deceived the investors. It took some time to unravel all the fraud put behind this devious act but shows how sophisticated white-collar crime can be. Although it’s usually associated with upper management of corporations, people from all different levels and occupations can perform this crime ("How White-collar Crime Works").
White collar and corporate crimes are crimes that many people do not associate with criminal activity. Yet the cost to the country due to corporate and white collar crime far exceeds that of “street” crime and benefit fraud. White collar and corporate crimes refer to crimes that take place within a business or institution and include everything from Tax fraud to health and safety breaches.
Fraud is usually comprehended as deceptive nature calculated for advantage. And usually this kind of people might be called a fraud. According to the U.S. legal system, fraud is a particular offense with specific features. Fraud must be proved by showing that the defendant’s actions involved five separate elements: 1. A false statement of a material fact; 2. Knowledge on the part of the defendant that the statement is untrue; 3. Intent on the part of the defendant to deceive the alleged victim; 4. Justifiable reliance by the alleged victim on the statement; 5. Injury to the alleged victim as a
Enron and their accounting firm Anderson Accounting brought what we know as “white collar crime” to the forefront. White-collar criminals are not known to be dirty criminals, because they use their heads to get what they want from society. White collar criminals do not use their muscle; instead they use their brain for mischievous way to manipulate people. These criminals are just as dangerous as the bank robbers and murderers in my opinion. In these times, even the most trusted people are being convicted of white-collar crimes, your neighbor, the banker you have trusted for ten plus years, the closest of family friends, no one can be ruled out. White-collar crimes can differ in the sort and magnitude of the crime. There are always new scams coming out every day that society falls victim
White collar crime has been discussed more frequently in the last few years. The news has made society aware that white collar crime occurs almost as often as other criminal activity. In fact, white collar crime is one of the most costly crimes. It is a billion dollar criminal industry. White collar criminals seem to continue to engage in the criminal practices because there is no set standard in the penalties given to those that are caught.
One of the most recent stories involving white-collar crimes in the United States involves the Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo is banking and a financial institution that offers financial services to very many people in the United States as well as around the world. As reported by the Washington Post, Wells Fargo as banking and a financial institution was involved defrauding its customers millions of dollars through their employees. It was reported that the employees were involved in the opening of close to 2 million bank accounts with Wells Fargo and proceeded to offer credit cards towards the same as a way of attracting the huge bonuses that were being offered (Merle, 2017). The white-collar crime perpetuated by Wells Fargo falls under the Corporate
The foundation of our country, the keystone to our democratic system, is the integrity of social institutions that we not only assume we can trust but have come to rely on for most aspects in our daily lives. The integrity of these social institutions can only be achieved through building blocks such as internal controls and independent, verifiable information. White collar criminals build a sense of false integrity around them in order to gain the trust of their victims, ranging from the young to the very old. Friedrich’s (2010) Trusted Criminals defines the foundation to white collar crime, the level of trust we have for those in power. We trust those in charge, those with power, and those who represent the integrity of our social institutions.
In the twentieth century, White Collar and Organized Crimes have attracted the attention of the U.S. Criminal Justice System due to the greater cost to society than most normal street crime. Even with the new attention by the Criminal Justice System, both are still pretty unknown to the general public. Although we know it occurs, due to the lack of coverage and information, society does not realize the extent of these crimes or the impact. White Collar and Organized is generally crime committed by someone that is considered respectable and has a high social status. The crimes committed usually consist of fraud, insider trading, bribery, embezzlement, money laundering, identity theft or forgery. One person would not normally commit all of these but likely one or the other.
Embezzlement is described in the book Criminology Today by Frank Schmalleger as, ”The unlawful misappropriation for personal use of money, property or other thing of value entrusted to the offender’s care, custody, or control”. One well known embezzlement case was discovered in 2008, it was perpetrated by Ausaf Umar Siddiqui a Pakistani American, better known a...
Imagine losing your retirement funds or being a victim of a mortgage fraud because money from your bank account disappeared overnight! The 1996 report of the National Criminal Justice Commission estimated that the annual cost of white-collar crime is between $130 billion and $472 billion, seven to twenty-five times greater than the cost of conventional or street crime (Conklin, 2010, P. 71). White-collar crime in America is considered larceny committed by the wealthy, respected, and legitimate enterprise which is not set up or intended to go out of business like an ordinary fraud or con game. White-collar crime offenses may involve forgery, embezzlement, or fraud involving massive amounts of money. Offender’s commit fraudulent acts in the course of normal business practice, but is considered unethical and violates accepted accounting principles and mainly public trust. To help better understand the issue the essay will explain several incidents which are involved with white collar crime and how it hurts many individuals from families to businesses. Even though white-collar crime offender’s gain an increase in salary and may go unnoticed, the criminal justice system should continue to take a stance on white collar crime. Because mainly white collar crime is a serious invincible crime, laws that regulate white collar crimes are necessary, and impacts society's way of life. Additionally, a proposed suggestion will be presented to counter the identified problems and conclude final thoughts on white-collar crime. At the end of the day the goal to continue law regulations against white collar crime while maintaining public protection will be the driving emphasis behind this essay.
White-collar crimes and organizational structure are related because white collar-crimes thrive in organizations that have weak structures. According to Price and Norris (2009), the elites who commit white collar-crimes usually exploit weaknesses in organizational structure and formulate rules and regulations that favor their crimes. Makansi (2010) examines case studies to prove that white-collar crime is dependent on organizational structure. For example, the financial crisis that Merchant Energy Business faced in 2001-2002 occurred due to the liberal Financial Accounting Board, which failed to provide a standard model of valuing natural gas and fuel. Moreover, a financial crisis that rocked the securitization market in 2008 was due to fraudulence in the pricing of securitization products. These examples ...
theft and cheating. Identity theft is a very serious crime and due to the resources made available