Practice Areas

White Collar Crimes

  • Fraud

  • Embezzlement

  • Money Laundering

  • Misappropriation of Funds

  • Securities Law Violations

  • Theft of Trade Secrets

  • Copyright Infringement

  • Trademark Infringement

White col­lar” crime is usu­al­ly used to describe finan­cial crimes com­mit­ted by busi­ness pro­fes­sion­als, man­agers, or oth­er peo­ple who use their posi­tions or to improp­er­ly obtain mon­ey or prop­er­ty. Bank fraud, embez­zle­ment, and mis­ap­pro­pri­a­tion are well-known exam­ples of white col­lar crimes. But some white col­lar offens­es might not at first seem “crim­i­nal” to many peo­ple. Exec­u­tives at pub­licly-trad­ed com­pa­nies can be accused of vio­lat­ing fed­er­al crim­i­nal secu­ri­ties laws if they sub­mit incor­rect finan­cial state­ments. It can be fed­er­al crime – crim­i­nal trade­mark infringe­ment – for a busi­ness to know­ing­ly sell fake Rolex watch­es or coun­ter­feit Nike shoes. A per­son could be charged in state or fed­er­al court with theft of trade secrets if they take cer­tain types of infor­ma­tion with them when they leave one employ­er to join a new com­pa­ny.

Although these mat­ters may be inves­ti­gat­ed by state author­i­ties, fed­er­al law enforce­ment agen­cies – like the FBI or IRS – often inves­ti­gate when large amounts of mon­ey are miss­ing from busi­ness­es in more than one state. Fed­er­al agen­cies also inves­ti­gate trans­ac­tions involve banks, cred­it-card com­pa­nies, mort­gage lenders, or oth­er finan­cial insti­tu­tions; or when funds from fed­er­al pro­grams (like Social Secu­ri­ty, Med­ic­aid, or fed­er­al gov­ern­ment con­tracts) are involved.

White col­lar crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tions may focus on com­plex busi­ness or account­ing prac­tices that may per­fect­ly legal. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, most pros­e­cu­tors and law enforce­ment don’t have a busi­ness back­ground, and may be sus­pi­cious even if no laws have been bro­ken. A suc­cess­ful defense usu­al­ly requires tak­ing the time and effort to ful­ly under­stand the inner work­ings of a client’s busi­ness. Under­stand­ing a “paper trail” of busi­ness trans­ac­tions can also allow a defense lawyer to find poten­tial solu­tions for clients.

Care­ful “foot­work” is essen­tial to defend­ing com­plex white-col­lar cas­es. Inves­ti­ga­tion can show that a client had no intent to take mon­ey or com­mit fraud, or that busi­ness or bank records con­tain errors, or that oth­ers were respon­si­ble for miss­ing assets. Know­ing when and how to use – like foren­sic accoun­tants and pri­vate fraud inves­ti­ga­tors – can help lead to suc­cess­ful out­comes.

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