Asheville White Collar Crimes Lawyer

North Carolina classifies white collar crime as crime that lacks violent intent. These crimes can involve individuals or entire corporations. Parties named in criminal cases may be accused of engaging in:

• Fraud
• Insider trading
• Ponzi schemes
• Identity theft
• Cybercrime
• Embezzlement
• Counterfeiting
• Money laundering
• Corporate espionage
• Forgeries

Deceit sits at the core of these alleged wrongdoings. North Carolina lawmakers legally discourage these practices in an attempt to maintain a stable economy and honesty in between businesses.

The Subsets of White Collar Crime

As mentioned, both individuals and whole corporations can be accused of engaging in white collar crime. The specific subsets of white collar crime include:

• Individual crimes, which see individuals commit some manner of financial fraud against a business, its clients, or some combination thereof. Individual white collar crimes can also include hacking and the misuse of company data, counterfeiting, fraud, and identity theft.
• Corporate crimes, which see entire institutions engage in misconduct. Insider trading, for example, sees corporate parties collude to influence the stock market before the general public becomes aware of upcoming changes.

North Carolina can hold both individuals and entire institutions accountable for alleged white collar crime. Criminal cases addressing corporate-wide misconduct tend to last longer than those addressing individual cases. In either case, however, the accused party can call on a white collar crimes lawyer in Asheville for a comprehensive defense.

North Carolina considers most white collar crimes to constitute felony offenses or Class 1 misdemeanors. The charges you face can vary depending on the nature of the white collar crime you are accused of committing and your existing criminal record.

Class 1 misdemeanors tend to see you risk up to 120 days in jail, should you leave your applicable white collar crime charges unchallenged. Naturally, felony charges can see you risk far longer in prison. Some of the most severe white collar crimes can put you at risk for a Class C felony. Upon a conviction, you may spend up to 182 months in prison.

In the face of most white collar crime convictions, defendants are required to pay restitution, court fees, and/or some manner of fine to an injured party and the court, respectively. A judge can determine the value of the fine you may have to pay based on the severity of the charges you’ve been brought up on.

Whether you’re facing accusations of white collar crime as an individual or as a company, you can expect some interference from federal institutions. As such, the process of approaching a white collar crime case is a little different than it is when contending with other criminal accusations.

Specifically, parties accused of engaging in white collar crime may receive a notification from a federal body informing them that said body intends to take action against them. This notification can inform you that you are the target of an investigation and that federal parties may be contacting potential witnesses in your life.

The good news about these warnings is that they give you plenty of time to get in touch with a criminal defense attorney. Reaching out to a white collar crimes attorney is not an admission of guilt. Rather, contacting a white collar crimes attorney early into a white collar crime investigation gives us time to help you investigate the case against you and build your defense.

In criminal cases addressing white collar crime, the burden of proof put upon the prosecution is significant. Specifically, these parties must work through all of the relevant documents to uphold their points—and even then, they must often do so within the boundaries set by hyper-specific language.

As a defendant, you may have several opportunities to contest the charges brought against you based on the prosecution’s wording alone. As your representatives, our white collar crimes lawyers can poke holes in the arguments the prosecution makes to introduce doubt into their case. 

Provided that we can introduce reasonable doubt into conversations about an alleged white collar crime, you may have the chance to reduce the charges you’re facing. In some cases, a judge may choose to drop your case.