Common White-Collar Crimes in Georgia

Edwin Sutherland, a prominent criminologist, coined the term white-collar crime in 1939. Typically, a white-collar crime is a sophisticated financial crime that incorporates elements of a violent crime. Due to these characteristics, the penalties for white-collar crimes are usually relatively high. Furthermore, these convictions severely damage the reputation of financial professionals. Many of these professionals can no longer work in their industries of choice following a white-collar crime conviction.

These charges are serious, and many prosecutors use this “shock and awe” factor to get a leg-up during settlement negotiations. Frequently, this approach works. But to an experienced criminal defense attorney, a white-collar charge is like any other criminal charge. Procedural and/or substantive defenses are usually available, which means an attorney usually successfully resolves these charges out of court.

Check Fraud

Despite the advent of debit cards and other forms of electronic payment, check fraud is still rampant today. Many businesses prefer using checks because these payments leave a more visible paper trail.

TBC (Theft By Check) involves presenting a check for payment when the writer is aware that the account has insufficient funds. If the check clears, TBC charges could still hold up in court if the account had insufficient funds at the time of presentation.

However, the same thing isn’t true in reverse. Assume Mary writes Adam a check on Monday. When he tries to cash the check on Thursday, the account has insufficient funds. If Mary had enough money in the bank to cover the check on Monday, she’s not guilty of TBC.

Bribery

In a sense, most political contributions are bribes. Most people donate to candidates with the expectation that the politician will vote a certain way or that the donor will have face time with the candidate.

However, Georgia laws are pretty straightforward. A payment is only a bribe if it involves a specific quid pro quo, like voting yes or no on a particular bill or making a specific public statement.

The “horse trading” defense usually doesn’t hold up in court. The unreliable tip defense is a different story. Many bribery whistleblowers seek to bring attention to wrongdoing or to gain personal recognition. Such mixed-motive tips are often unreliable as a matter of law.

Medical Coding Fraud

Services-not-rendered prosecutions are widespread in these cases. A doctor submits a fake bill to an insurance company. Services-partially rendered cases are common as well. A doctor delegates a task to a physician assistant or nurse and bills the full physician rate for that service.

Such matters are complex for a Norcross criminal defense lawyer to defend, assuming the investigation was proper. Just like doctors take shortcuts during the billing process, investigators sometimes take shortcuts, like questioning suspects before reading them their rights.

Embezzlement

This offense is theft plus a betrayal of trust. Therefore, embezzlement is often a felony, at least initially. Charge reduction plea bargain agreements are widespread in these cases. Prosecutors drop felony charges if defendants plead guilty to misdemeanors, which don’t have the same collateral consequences as felonies.

Mortgage Fraud

Generally, fraud is an actual misstatement of a material fact intended to produce unlawful financial gain. Based on this definition, many instances of mortgage “fraud” are not fraudulent. If XYZ wants to loan more money to certain people groups and mortgage brokers lie to these borrowers, their misstatements may not meet the financial gain prong of the fraud test.

Work With a Dedicated Gwinnett County Attorney

White-collar crimes have serious consequences. For a confidential consultation with an experienced criminal law attorney in Norcross, contact Zimmerman & Associates.