Owning and managing business comes with many risks. Whenever you are dealing with money you can be sure to come across bad elements that want to take advantage of you. While it is not entirely possible to avoid these types of people it does help to be aware of the types of crimes they can commit and be on the watch to avoid becoming a victim. There are many white-collar crimes that can affect you and your business. Some are more serious than others. Below we discuss some of the most prevalent ones that fall under federal jurisdiction.
- False Statements – This is a pretty broad category of crimes that can apply to number of business owners. There are federal laws that prohibit anyone from knowingly and intentionally lie to or conceal information from any federal agent or investigator. Even if you are not in the courtroom and under oath, you can be charged with federal criminal charges for false statement if you lie to federal agencies such as IRS, FBI, etc.
- Internet Crime – The rise of internet age has created number of federal laws that prohibit the use of the internet, computers or computer networks to commit illegal acts. These so called cybercrimes carry several punishment with potential sentence of years in prison or even a life sentence.
- Money Laundering – This is a very serious offense that carries severe penalties possibly including up to 20 years in prison, hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and seizure or forfeiture of your assets. Even if you don’t knowingly engage in money laundering you can fall prey to those who use your identity to commit this type of crime.
- Misappropriation – Misappropriation is a type of white-collar crime associated with the theft or misuse of funds, assets or trade secrets. When someone commits this type of crime they take funds, assets or trade secrets that don’t belong to them without permission and use them for their own purposes.
- Bankruptcy Fraud – Bankruptcy fraud has to do with knowingly abusing the bankruptcy protection laws by making false statements in bankruptcy filing to conceal or transfer assets to prevent them from being distributed to your creditors as part of your bankruptcy plan.
- Embezzlement – Embezzlement is a type of theft crime, but it differs from theft in that the defendant in an embezzlement case is accused of stealing money or property he or she was entrusted with managing or monitoring.
- Mortgage Fraud – The housing bubble in 2008-2009 saw large number of mortgage fraud being committed by many homebuyers, real estate attorneys, mortgage brokers, appraisers, and real estate professionals. Straw purchases, house flipping schemes, equity skims and inflated appraisals are all examples of mortgage fraud.
As you can see managing a business is fraught with risk of being victim of many different types of white-collar crime. It is important to keep your eyes open engage the expert federal attorney such as Federal Criminal Defense PRO who have experience in dealing with these types of crimes.
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