White-collar crimes in most cases are those that are nonviolent but are committed with motives that may lead to financial gain. While there are many types of white-collar crimes, money laundering, insider trading, insurance fraud, and embezzlement are usually the most talked about.
If you or a loved one are being prosecuted for similar white-collar crimes, it is necessary to make sure that you are doing everything you can to defend against the consequences of being found guilty.
While most white-collar crimes have shorter sentences than criminal cases, the sentences do matter based on the crime committed and the amount in question. Here are the top defenses to save you from white-collar crime prosecution:
Unknowing Or Unintentional Crimes
One of the most common defenses that your criminal defense attorney can make in your favor is the fact that you were unaware that you were committing criminal acts in the first place.
Although this seems like a weak argument, this is not the case as this is a very real occurrence for many people, especially those new to the white-collar world.
For example, insider trading can be very unintentional as it is a crime that involves telling others confidential information or anything that is not public yet. What may be a friendly conversation between you and an acquaintance can quickly turn into insider trading without your knowledge.
This argument is also easier to prove if you did not gain anything substantial from the committed crime.
Illegal Discovery Or Search
A common way that many lawyers prevent their guilty clients from a sentence is by getting the incriminating evidence thrown out of court by asking the jury to disregard it.
To prove someone’s guilt, the opposing counsel can indulge in illegal ways to search company records or obtain discovery in illegal ways. These might be hard to prove but can help immensely significantly if the client is guilty.
If the incriminating evidence was obtained in illegal ways, the jury has to disregard it and move on even if the evidence is true however, there are some exceptions to this rule.
Forced or Threatened Actions
There is a chance that you may just be a pawn in a much bigger criminal establishment and orders given to you by superiors merely drove your actions. If you were forced or threatened into committing a crime, this can help you when in court.
As your contribution to the crime was only obeying your superiors, your sentence can be reduced heavily especially if some of the threats can be classified as verbal or physical abuse.
If your criminal defense attorney can prove that your actions were forced or because of threats, you can even get out without jail time. Your sentence could simply be house arrest and a monetary fine.
Plea To Expose Larger Criminal Activities
If you are guilty of a white-collar crime, there are a couple of ways to reduce your sentence if you cannot get rid of jail time. One of the easiest ways to do that is to become an informant.
If you know that the company or organization that you are dealing with regularly indulges in criminal activity or have proof of such crimes, you can strike a deal to save yourself.
Many law-enforcement bodies are interested in taking down larger crime rings than a single white-collar criminal so this may work very well in your favor and give you some bargaining chips.
Conclusion
While the above was just some ways to defend against white-collar crime prosecution, there are many ways to prove your innocence. The best thing that you can do is get a great criminal defense attorney to fight your case.
