On behalf of Rosenblum Schwartz & Fry posted in White Collar Crimes on Tuesday, July 24, 2018.
We note from long professional experience that many defendants across Missouri and elsewhere facing white collar criminal charges never consciously set out to engage in unlawful behavior. We stress on our website at Rosenblum Schwartz & Fry that “panic regarding cash flow and a ‘slippery slope’ to more serious legal infractions often form the background to many of these types of cases.”
That inside perspective on white collar crime psychology and motivation is often echoed in national reports and studies. A Washington Post article notes, for example, the view of an ex prosecutor that many white collar criminal defendants cannot recollect when or how they crossed the proverbial line of no return concerning wrongful activity. Frequently, they find “that they simply slid gradually and inexorably over it, one small step at a time.”
It is thus a myth, notes the Post piece, to simply lump financial crimes together with other criminal offenses marked centrally by discrete events and close personal contact with victims, like robbery or theft crimes.
There are other misconceptions concerning white collar crime that the Post piece underscores as well, which are informative and can be gleaned via the above link.
One touches upon the widespread belief that high-profile defendants seldom come in for serious punishment, especially compared with perpetrators of “traditional” crimes.
That view has been proven wrong many times in recent years, as some of our prior posts readily confirm (please see our July 3 blog entry, for example). In fact, federal and state task forces spend considerable amounts of time, money and energy targeting and prosecuting individuals accused of white collar crimes.
White collar criminal charges span a wide gamut of activity. Questions or concerns regarding any aspect of this singular and highly scrutinized realm can be directed to seasoned criminal defense attorneys who routinely provide diligent representation to individuals facing such offenses.