FINANCIAL CRIMES

What is white collar crime?

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White collar crime refers to non-violent crime committed by an individual, business, or government professional for financial gain. White color crimes typically involve concealment, fraud, violation of trust, or deceit, and are not dependent upon the use or threat of physical force and violence. Words such as “fraud,” “scam,” “scheme,” and “launder” are now synonymous with white-collar crimes. The term white-collar includes economic and financial crimes.

The more common white color crimes in New York State include:

• Bank fraud —Obtaining money or assets from a bank or other financial institution through illegal means, or attempting to obtain money from investors by acting as a bank or holding yourself out to be a bank

• Bankruptcy fraud — Hiding assets to avoid forfeiture, misleading bankruptcy court by providing false information about your finances or by withholding information about your finances from the bankruptcy court, or filing petitions and other paperwork using false information

• Credit card fraud — Using a credit card that was unlawfully obtained, charging a credit card without owner authorization, forging another person’s credit card, accessing credit card information without consent, fraudulently disseminating another person’s credit card information

• Embezzlement — Violating a special position of trust to misappropriate another party’s assets for personal gain, typically in a business setting

• Healthcare fraud — False billing, fabricating procedures and charges, providing false or misleading information to a health insurer, providing false information to recover payment from Medicare, or Medicaid, medical offices claiming to have performed certain services and subsequently submitting a bill to health insurance for compensation

• Identity theft — Using another person’s personal identifying information such as name, credit card, Social Security number, bank account without that person’s permission for personal benefit

• Insurance Fraud —Submitting a false claim to insurance company, fabricating and presenting false information in an insurance claim

• Money laundering — Making it seem like money earned from illegal activities came from legal sources of business- cleaning “dirty” money, Concealing the illegal source and origin of ill-gotten funds and making it appear as though the funds were gained from lawful activities such as real estate investments, or financial deals.  

• Mortgage fraud — Falsifying mortgage documents or misrepresenting information to defraud lending institutions including credits unions and banks

• Securities fraud — Misleading practices and unlawful activities by a stock broker or financial advisor (for example ponzi schemes, churning, pump and dump, unauthorized trades, insider trading), a state and federal crime

• Tax evasion — Distorting tax documents such as understating income and assets to avoid paying taxes, falsifying sales records to reduce sales tax, claiming false tax deductions, or any other illegal efforts done to avoid paying taxes

• Mail fraud/wire fraud — Both mail and wire fraud involve deceptive tactics to deprive an individual of money or property. Mail fraud requires use of the U.S. Postal Service or any private or commercial interstate carrier (like FedEx or UPS) to commit fraud. Wire fraud requires use of telephone, email, text message, or any other interstate wire-based communications to obtain money by fraudulent pretenses