White Collar Crime

Welcome to the age of white collar crime. A time when the words thieves and businessmen go hand in hand. White collar criminals don’t get their hands dirty in their work. They use their heads to get what they want instead of using a little muscle. These criminals are just as dangerous as the rapists and murderers. In these times, even the most seemingly respectable people are suspected of white collar crimes. President Clinton and the first lady Hillary Clinton have been tangled up in the Whitewater and Travelgate business ventures. Although the two have not been formally charged with any wrongdoing, there is a committee currently investigating their dealings and charges are not out of the question for either of them. In Michael Isikoff’s and Mark Hosenball’s Newsweek article “Cracks in the Wall,” they describe the Clintons’ dealings with Whitewater and the possible consequences of them: “The Senate Whitewater committee is considering asking for perjury charges against Susan Thomas and Maggie Williams, Mrs. Clintons’ chief of staff, in connection with her testimony about the removal of documents from Vince Foster’s office” (Isikoff 29). This case goes to show that there presently a growing problem with our country, and it is called white collar crime. White collar crimes are very numerous in kind. New ones are always being invented by someone with a good scam. Embezzlement, tax evasion, and fraud are some of the more popular kinds. A person who has the power of controlling money in a business is most likely commit embezzlement. A shortened definition of embezzlement is “to steal money that is entrusted to Phillips 2 one.” This is one of the fastest rising crimes in the nation. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, embezzlement rose thirty eight percent from 1984 to 1993 (U.S. Dept. of Justice 239). Forgery is another growing form of white collar crime. This is defined as the act of imitating or counterfeiting documents or signatures for the purpose of deceiving someone. Forgery also shows the same growth trends as embezzlement. From 1984 to 1993 forgery and counterfeiting increased twenty-one percent (U.S. Dept. of Justice 240). Bogus ads, job scams, and telephone scams are all examples of fraud. Basically these scams ask you to send money for something that is non-existent. An example of a telephone scam would be if someone called to ask for donations for a phony organization or charity. If you donated the money, it would either not get to the organization or charity you wanted, or the charity simply did not exist in the first place. The most obvious way these crimes differ from other crimes is that they don’t require any “dirty work.” When people think of crimes, they think of get away cars and bank heists, but many criminals never even touch a gun. Their weapon of choice is a computer or a telephone. They are just as deadly with these as the man with the gun in the bank. White collar crimes are committed out of greed. The people who usually commit these crimes are financially secure. A lot of crimes are committed out of greed, but virtually all white collar crimes are committed out of greed. Statistics show that the majority of white collar crimes are committed by certain groups of people. Using the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s findings, White collar crimes are definitely committed by certain people. nine thousand five-hundred and six people, who were all over eighteen, were arrested for embezzlement in nine-teen ninety three. Only five hundred and eighty- Phillips 3 six people under eighteen were arrested for the same crime, in the same year. The findings were nearly the same although for men and women. Men were one and a half times more likely than women to embezzle money. The statistics for fraud and forgery were nearly the same (U.S. Dept. of Justice 239) From these findings, men over eighteen are most likely to be charged with embezzlement, fraud or forgery. Women over the age of eighteen are a little less likely to commit one of the specified white collar crimes. People in authority positions are also more likely to commit these crimes. These people have more opportunities to commit a white collar crime than a person with little authority. Peter Michelmore, a journalist for Readers Digest describes this situation well in his article, “On the Trail of a Scam” He describes a savings and loan scam and the man behind it all. “Meyer learned that New Era was run by John G. Bennet, Jr., a 57 year old evangelical Christian.” (112) New Era was a getting money from a private university, in which he promised huge returns on their investment. New Era did show them huge profits, but only to gain their trust and invest more money. The private university was gaining trust in New Era and investing more money. Finally, when They had invested a large sum of money, New Era collapsed and John Bennet walked away with the university’s money. Mr. Bennet is a prime