Clearwater White Collar Crime Lawyer
White-collar crimes involve allegations such as fraud, corruption, embezzlement, conspiracy, kickbacks, and more. In this article, we’ll discuss white-collar crimes and how a Clearwater white collar crime lawyer at King Law Group can help improve your situation.
What is a white-collar crime?
White-collar crime is a colloquial term for any of a number of commercial crimes that occur on a daily basis. Because they occur in corporate or executive settings, they are considered white-collar crimes.
In fact, the term white-collar crime also applies to a number of gang-related activities such as identity theft and defrauding the federal government. It also sometimes applies to those in white coats providing medical services to patients. It can even apply to you if you misrepresent your financial status on a loan application.
Examples of white-collar crimes
- Fraud – Fraud is the most commonly charged white-collar crime. While there are all different sorts of fraud, most of the crimes that you will find listed under the category of “white collar” involve some form of fraud. Fraud means taking someone’s money or property based on false or misleading statements.
- Embezzlement – Embezzlement occurs when an individual is responsible for shared funds and uses the money for some other purpose. Embezzlement is usually committed by an employee against their employer.
- Forgery – If you’re selling reprints of famous and expensive baseball cards, you are not committing a crime. If you pass those reprints off as originals, then you’re committing the crime of forgery. The crime is not actually creating the reprint, it’s passing the reprint off as real. Forgery can also involve false statements made on official documentation. One of the more common examples of this crime is when someone forges a person’s signature onto a check and then uses the check as if the signature was genuine. As soon as you “utter” the forged document, file it or present it as real, you have committed the crime of forgery.
- Identity theft – Using someone else’s identity to apply for credit cards, personal loans, or to receive benefits to which you’re not entitled is illegal.
- Healthcare fraud – White-collar crimes and white-coat crimes are quite similar. Doctors are now being accused of crimes like patient-brokering or kickback schemes to funnel patients from one program to the next. Alternatively, if doctors bill for procedures they never perform or intentionally misdiagnosed patients to charge their health insurance for as much money as possible, the doctor could be guilty of healthcare fraud.
- RICO prosecutions – If you’re part of an organized initiative to commit fraud or other crimes, you can be charged under RICO. In some cases, individuals who had no knowledge of a crime end up being charged alongside conspirators simply because they’re guilty by association.
Talk to a Clearwater, FL White Collar Crime & Fraud Defense Lawyer
If you’ve been charged with fraud, embezzlement, or any other white-collar crime, call a Clearwater criminal defense attorney at King Law Group today to discuss your situation and begin the process of defending yourself against the charges.
