If you’re accused of corporate crimes, your priority should be building a defense that can help you protect yourself. Corporate crimes may include various charges such as embezzlement, financial fraud, insider trading and others.
Fortunately, there are some ways to develop defenses against these charges, so you can protect your own best interests and prevent and unfair conviction.
What constitutes a white collar or corporate crime?
Corporate crimes are those that are perpetrated by employees of a corporation or organization for that business’s benefit. For example, if you work for a bank and participate in a money laundering scheme to help the organization keep more money off the books, you committed a white-collar crime (money laundering) as well as a corporate crime (helping your employer funnel money elsewhere).
White-collar crimes often involve fraud or embezzlement, as an example, but they don’t always involve the business directly.
What should you do when you’re facing allegations of committing white-collar or corporate crimes?
In either case, your priority should be building a strong defense that helps show that you did not commit the crimes or did not know that you were participating in a scheme to commit certain crimes. For example, if you were just following your employer’s orders and didn’t know any better, it would be unreasonable to hold you accountable for their criminal actions.
You need to be sure that you understand your legal rights if you’re accused of a corporate crime. There are federal laws that guide what evidence can or cannot be used against you and what may or may not be admissible in a court of law. You will want to be sure that you have a strong defense and protections in place, too, since the government is likely to be the entity prosecuting you.
By building up a defense, you’ll be in a better position to navigate the criminal charges and show that you don’t deserve to be penalized or to face the worst of the penalties that are possible. Don’t wait to get help. If you know you’re being investigated, it’s time to take action to protect your best interests.