WHITE COLLAR CRIMES

White collar crimes refer to a set of nonviolent acts – usually motivated by money – where a person or an organization wrongfully takes another’s money or property.  Though these offenses involve no violence, they often victimize many people indirectly through use of “Ponzi schemes” or other avenues available to perpetrators of elevated professional status. Simply being charged with a white–collar crime is often enough to destroy personal and professional reputations. Conviction often carries serious, life–changing penalties including incarceration, paying restitution and fines, giving up illegal profits (“disgorgement”) and loss of work and professional licenses. This means if you find yourself facing allegations of charges of white–collar criminal activity in Santa Barbara, you need a skilled defense attorney by your side.

As a former prosecutor, Santa Barbara criminal defense attorney, Christy Horowitz, has extensive experience with white collar cases and she understands the importance of being proactive in these instances.  She delivers dedicated and aggressive representation.

The two main types of white–collar crime are fraud and embezzlement.  However, many other illegal actions fall under this umbrella of crimes at the state or federal level, including:

• Money laundering
• Bribery
• “Ponzi”schemes
• Insider trading
• Identity theft
• Forgery
• Copyright infringement
• Labor racketeering

FRAUD

Fraud is a serious white–collar crime that involves deceit, which results in financial gain to the detriment of others. Essentially, the perpetrator uses lies to gain an advantage. The charges can stem from a number of elements like counterfeiting, mail fraud, wire fraud, real estate dealings, theft by false pretense and forgery.

EMBEZZLEMENT

Embezzlement is a version of fraud.  It involves betraying financial trust from an employer in either one transaction or over a long time.  This misappropriation of money may be a state or a federal offense, but it usually falls into one of two categories:

• Professionals, such as accountants, who are given financial responsibility by an organization and either steal or misappropriate money
• Employees, such as cashiers at retail stores, that steal from their place of employment

These cases often involve more than simple petty theft – wrongfully taking property, abuse of check writing power or access to an employer’s bank accounts, and an employee intermingling their personal funds with an organization’s funds all fall into the category of embezzlement.