White Collar Crimes Law, Essay Example

Definition of white collar crime

White Collar Crime may be briefly defined as any act of fraud, bribery, insider trading, act of embezzlement, securities fraud, cyber fraud or forgery ( not exhaustive). It was the sociologist Edwin H Sutherland (1893-1950) who introduced the phrase ‘White Collar Crime’, hence “any illegal act punishable by a criminal sanction that is committed in the course of a legitimate occupation or by pursuit by a Corporation or responsible individual  …” (Conklin, 2010).  The FBI has estimated that White Collar Crime costs the United States more than $300 billion per annum.

Laws that regulate white collar crime

There are a diverse set of laws that regulate this type of criminal behaviour in the USA.  These are briefly described as follows:

Fbi white collar crime

Essentially the FBI focuses upon acts of fraud. They consider criminal acts committed by both individuals and Corporations. The largest case in recent history being that of Enron that implicated the Directors, the international accounting firm of Andersen’s and reached out to UK Government politics.

Fraud enforcement and recovery act 2009

A public law that was enacted in 2009 and provides a legal framework in order to address federal fraud law. It has particular emphasis on such items as “financial institutions, mortgage fraud, securities fraud, and commodities fraud” (HG.Org, 2010).

Health care fraud enforcement act 2009

This legal framework deals with items that impact Medicare fraud. The act enhances the Government’s ability to deal with and investigate Medicare fraud.

Public prosectution improvement act

This considers a bill being prepared in 2009 by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The objective being to remedy a current ill-defined statute relative to dealing with public corruption.

Ramos-campean justice act 2009

“HR 3327 amends 18.USC S3553” (HG.Org, 2010). This allows the Federal Court the power to improve a sentence below a statutory minimum where the court deems this necessary.

Enron fraud

Enron was the seventh largest American corporations employing over 21,000 staff.  Over 40 countries worldwide.  They became involved in one of the biggest deception fraud in American corporate history.  The deception resulted in the firm going bankrupt in December 2002. The implications of false accounting practices also created the collapse of the Andersen auditing firm. It might be argued that justice was served in the prosecution, conviction of many involved, but the fact that Enron employees invested in average 60% of their retirement plans, and the creditors lost billions of dollars on the collapse within excess of 1000 companies involved. .  “Sarbanes Oxley is necessary law designed to keep public companies honest with their financial reporting.” (Sarbanes Oxley, 2010).

White Collar fraud has an impact on society and others as this can impact the taxation system on individuals.  Equally consider the pension frauds, as in the case of Enron.  In most cases it is always the poorer elements of society that are impacted the most.  Unfortunately social responsibility does not come high on the agenda of capitalists chasing wealth.

Works Cited

Conklin, J. E. (2010). Criminology. In J. E. Cronklin, Criminology (pp. 69-72). New Jersey: Pearson Education.

HG.Org. (2010). White Collar Crime – Guide to White Collar Crimes Law. Retrieved 9 1, 2010, from HG.Org: http://www.hg.org/white-collar-crime.html

Sarbanes Oxley. (2010). Sarbanes Oxley: A Brief Overview. Retrieved 8 31, 2010, from Sarbanes Oxley: http://www.sarbanesoxleybasics.com/