WHITE COLLAR CRIMES AND FRAUDS

The State of Florida and U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecute White Collar Crimes and Frauds of all varieties. In its essence, a Fraud is an intentional lie, misrepresentation or omission used to obtain money or property. It can be as small as pretending to be someone else to use their credit cards or as big and catastrophic as Enron.

Federal law provides broad regulations to punish Frauds, recognizing the distinction by the means. Wire Fraud punishes Frauds perpetrated through interstate telephone calls or electronic communications. This includes using the internet. Mail Fraud punishes Frauds perpetrated via the mail. Bank Fraud punishes Frauds targeting financial institutions, or obtaining money or assets owned or in the custody of a financial institution.

Almost every sort of complicated White Collar Crime prosecution includes a Fraud perpetrated through one of these three channels. They may include a count of Money Laundering, which criminalizes the knowing transfer of proceeds of unlawful activity, whether intended to promote the unlawful activity, hide the money from the IRS, conceal the true owner of the funds or more. However, the U.S. Attorney’s Office targets certain offenses like Health Care Fraud, Securities Fraud and Identity Theft with more focused regulations.

Although the State of Florida punishes Theft very generally, it defines most Fraud offenses with tremendous specificity, punishing the behavior based upon the intended target or field, like Mortgage Fraud, Fraudulent Use of a Credit Card and Criminal Use of Personal Identification Information. Recently, the State passed a generalist statute punishing schemes to defraud, which means a systematic, ongoing course of conduct with intent to defraud one or more persons, or with intent to obtain property from one or more persons by false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises or willful misrepresentations of a future act.

Because Frauds comes with serious penalties and are frequently investigated after or as they occur, you should speak with Mr. Brown about them immediately. He has handled lots of frauds and can’t wait to discuss your situation with you. Before it’s too late, talk to him and see if he can help you best defend yourself!