People often think of white collar crimes as those that higher level executives might commit, but it’s possible for people on any level to be accused of these crimes. The reason they’re often associated with the wealthy and executives is because these are often the individuals who are at the heart of publicized cases.
There are many different types of white collar crimes that can occur. Taking a look at a few of them shows that they aren’t really limited to specific individuals.
Money laundering is a crime that’s usually associated with other criminal activity. It involves trying to funnel money that’s made illegally through legal means so that it appears the money was made in a lawful manner.
Tax evasion occurs when a person doesn’t file their income taxes or if they use fraudulent information to fill the forms out. This is done to avoid having to pay the taxes that are due. There are many ways that they might do this.
Insider trading involves using information that’s not available to all shareholders to make decisions about how a person handles specific investments in their portfolio. It’s possible for that information to come from direct knowledge, but it’s also possible that it will come from someone close to the publicly traded company.
One thing to remember is that you can’t accidentally commit a white collar crime. Intent is an important point in all these cases. Once you know that you’re facing a charge, you should work with an attorney familiar with this area of the law, so you can learn your options and plan your defense strategy.