Fraud, Embezzlement & Money Laundering
Legal Defense Against Financial Crimes
Fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering are all criminal offenses related to financial misconduct. Each involves different actions and intentions, but they all center around illegal activities related to money and finances.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these offenses:
Fraud: Encompasses various deceptive practices to obtain something of value, often money, through dishonesty. It involves misrepresentation, concealment, or false statements to deceive someone into believing something untrue. Fraud can take many forms:
- Financial Fraud: Fraudulent activities in financial transactions, such as credit card fraud, investment fraud, or mortgage fraud.
- Identity Theft: Using someone else’s personal information to commit fraud, usually to gain access to their financial resources or commit other crimes.
- Insurance Fraud: Making false claims or misrepresenting information to an insurance company to obtain payments or benefits.
- Wire Fraud: Using electronic means (such as emails or phone calls) to deceive someone and obtain money or assets.
- Internet Fraud: Deceptive practices on the internet, like online shopping scams or phishing.
Embezzlement: Refers to dishonestly appropriating or withholding assets, money, or property entrusted to one’s care but owned by someone else. The person committing embezzlement typically has lawful access to the funds or assets but misuses or diverts them for personal gain. Embezzlement often occurs in employment settings where an employee entrusted with managing finances misappropriates funds for their benefit.
Money Laundering: Money laundering is the disguising the origins of illegally obtained money, typically generated through criminal activities like drug trafficking, fraud, or corruption. The main goal of money laundering is to make the ill-gotten gains appear legitimate by passing them through a complex sequence of financial transactions. The process typically involves three stages:
- Placement: Introducing illegal funds into the financial system by depositing them into banks or other financial institutions.
- Layering: Conducting multiple transactions to obscure the source of the funds, making it difficult to trace their origin.
- Integration: Reintroducing the now “cleaned” money back into the economy as seemingly legitimate funds.
Fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering are all illegal and subject to criminal prosecution. If you are the subject of a criminal investigation, the best strategy to protect your rights, liberties, and reputation is an early and aggressive defense.
Our experienced attorneys help clients defend against various white-collar crime and economic fraud charges, including mail fraud, wire fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering.
Our federal criminal defense lawyers are skilled negotiators and aggressive litigators ready and willing to defend even the most complex cases.