There is no such criminal charge as “white-collar crime.” Instead, the term refers to a wide variety of nonviolent financial crimes, most of which occur in a workplace setting. Some of these charges arise in highly complex cases involving allegations of securities fraud, money laundering or insider trading.
One of the most relatively straightforward types of white-collar crimes is embezzlement. The Justice Department defines embezzlement as “the fraudulent appropriation of property by a person to whom such property has been entrusted.” In other words, if a person has permission to handle the property, but decides to secretly keep it for themselves, they may be said to have committed embezzlement. For instance, the cashier at a retail store may be accused of taking cash out of the till for themselves.
Indiana man charged with embezzling $87,000
The truth is that many embezzlement cases are not so simple. Recently, an Indiana man was convicted and sentenced to 16 months in prison after he was accused of embezzling $87,000 from his employer.
According to the federal prosecution in the case, the man worked in sales at the time of his arrest, and had previously been the founder and chief executive of the company where he worked. According to court records, the man bought a car, motorcycles, scooters and various expensive electronic devices for himself, but charged them to the company. Prosecutors said he used his knowledge of the company’s invoicing system to file misleading invoices that suggested the purchases were not for his personal use.
Complex defense
Many embezzlement cases involve allegations of advanced schemes to take property and conceal the crime. To protect their rights and their futures, defendants must also be prepared to discuss complex evidence.
This isn’t easy to do. Federal prosecutors have the skills and the resources to gather complex evidence and present it to a jury in a way that appears to support the charges against the defendant.
Defendants must be ready to argue against the prosecution’s interpretation of events, and they must present their arguments in a way that makes sense to the jury. This is why it is so important for defendants in these cases to seek out help from attorneys with experience in white-collar crime defense.