Chapter 13: Enterprise Crime: White-Collar, Green, and Transnational Organized Crime

Rational Choice: Need

Some people turn to crime to fulfill an overwhelming financial or psychological need.

The Mafia

The Mafia originated in Sicily around 1860, and started as a criminal gang employed by wealthy landowners to function as agents of social and land control, keeping peasant workers in line. At the turn of the twentieth century, La Mano Nera (the Black Hand), an offshoot of Sicilian criminal groups, established themselves in northeastern urban centers. Gangsters demanded payments from local businessmen in return for "protection"; those who would not pay were beaten and their shops vandalized. Eventually the Black Hand merged with gangs of Italian heritage to form larger urban-based gangs and groups. January 16, 1919, when the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The new amendment prohibited the sale, manufacture, and transportation of intoxicating liquors. Until then, gangs had remained relatively small and local, but now the national market for controlled substances opened the door to riches. Charles "Lucky" Luciano, who had come to the United States during this era, is credited with helping to create a national syndicate, La Cosa Nostra, with rules and codes that all members were required to follow. When Luciano was deported back to Italy in 1946 for operating a prostitution ring, he became a liaison between the Sicilian Mafia and La Cosa Nostra national syndicate that was centrally coordinated and whose various component gangs worked cooperatively to settle disputes, dictate policy, and assign territory. Despite these efforts at cooperation and control, numerous and bloody gang wars and individual vendettas were common. twentieth century, the power of the Mafia continued to grow. Meyer Lansky (1902-1983), a close associate of Luciano, was involved in a wide range of organized criminal activity from the 1920s to the 1970s. Lansky was especially active in gambling ventures, including the rise of Las Vegas, and led efforts by the mob to build casinos in Cuba before the communist revolution. The FBI estimates that the Mafia has approximately 25,000 members total, with 250,000 affiliates worldwide. The families control crime in distinct geographic areas. New York City, the most important organized crime area, contains five families—Gambino, Columbo (formerly Profaci), Lucchese, Bonanno, and Genovese—named after their founding "godfathers." Chicago contains a single mob organization called the "outfit," which also influences racketeering in such cities as Milwaukee, Kansas City, and Phoenix. The families are believed to be ruled by a "commission" made up of the heads of the five New York families and bosses from Detroit, Buffalo, Chicago, and Philadelphia, which settles personal problems and jurisdictional conflicts and enforces rules that allow members to gain huge profits through the manufacture and sale of illegal goods and services. The mafia remains active in the U.S. today with an estimated 25,000 members and 250,000 affiliates worldwide

Why is it so difficult to eradicate transnational Gangs?

The gangs are ready to use violence and well equipped to carry out threats. Los Zetas, whose core members are former members of the Mexican military's elite Special Air Mobile Force Group (Grupo Aeromovil de Fuerzas Especiales, or GAFES). Military trained, Los Zetas are able to carry out complex operations and use sophisticated weaponry. Los Zetas, who began as enforcers for the Gulf cartel's regional domination, are now their rivals and are considered the most powerful Mexican transnational gang. Their base is Nuevo Laredo, but the criminal organization's sphere of influence extends across Mexico and deep into Central America. Unlike most gangs, which obtain most of their income from narcotics, Los Zetas earns about half their income trafficking in arms, kidnapping, and competing for control of trafficking routes along the eastern half of the U.S.-Mexico border. The cartel is now considered Mexico's most brutal, and they are suspected of kidnapping and killing Central American migrants headed for the border as well as Mexican bus passengers who traveled through their territory. Even when a gang can be taken out, it is soon replaced as long as money can be made. Take the case of La Familia Michoacana cartel, which became an independent drug trafficking organization in Mexico and later allied itself with the Gulf cartel. Originated in the 1980s, La Familia was heavily armed and utilized violence to support its narcotics trafficking business, including murders, kidnappings, and assaults in the Michoacán state of Mexico. The killing of its founder and leader Nazario Moreno González in 2011 spelled the end of La Familia. However, that did not spell the end of gang activity in the area. Two of his subordinates, Enrique Plancarte Solís and Servando Gómez Martínez, broke away and formed the Knights Templar gang (Caballeros Templarios). The Knights extort protection money from legitimate businesspeople in Michoacán and tax farmers' crops; they tell restaurant owners what to charge for food and then demand a kickback. drug trade is an important source of foreign revenue, and destroying the drug trade undermines the economies of third-world nations. Even if the government of one nation were willing to cooperate in vigorous drug suppression efforts, suppliers in other nations, eager to cash in on the sellers' market, would be encouraged to turn more acreage over to coca or poppy production. Today, almost every Caribbean country is involved with narcotrafficking, and illicit drug shipments in the region are worth more money than the top five legitimate exports combined. Drug gangs are able to corrupt the political structure and destabilize countries. The corruption of the police and other security forces has reached a crisis point, where an officer can earn the equivalent of half a year's salary by simply looking the other way on a drug deal. There are also indications that the drug syndicates may be planting a higher yield variety of coca and improving refining techniques to replace crops lost to government crackdowns. The United States has little influence in some key drug-producing areas such as Taliban-held Afghanistan and Myanmar (formerly Burma). War and terrorism also may make gang control strategies problematic. After the United States toppled Afghanistan's Taliban government, the remnants began to grow and sell poppy to support their insurgency; Afghanistan now supplies 90 percent of the world's opium. And while the Colombian guerillas may not be interested in joining or colluding with crime cartels, they finance their war against the government by aiding drug traffickers and "taxing" crops and sales. Considering these problems, it is not surprising that transnational gangs continue to flourish.

Bank Fraud

a federal crime in which a person fraudulently attempts to obtain a bank loan or funds from a bank check kiting, check forgery, false statements on loan applications, sale of stolen checks, bank credit card fraud, unauthorized use of automatic teller machines (ATMs), auto title fraud, and illegal transactions with offshore banks, bank fraud can cost billions per year. Among the schemes used to defraud banks are mortgage frauds in which a group of conspirators fraudulently obtain loans on overvalued or nonexistent property. Fraudulent property flipping. Property is purchased, falsely appraised at a higher value, and then quickly sold at a higher value than the market. A home worth $200,000 may be appraised for $800,000 or higher and sold to a co-conspirator who gets a mortgage based on a phony appraisal. The new owner quickly defaults on the loan. This type of scheme typically involves one or more of the following: fraudulent appraisals, doctored loan documentation, and/or inflating buyer income. Kickbacks to buyers, investors, property/loan brokers, appraisers, or title company employees are common in this scheme. Silent second. The buyer of a property borrows the down payment from the seller through the issuance of a nondisclosed second mortgage. The primary lender believes the borrower has invested his own money in the down payment, when in fact it is borrowed. The second mortgage may not be recorded to further conceal its status from the primary lender. Nominee loans/straw buyers. The identity of the borrower is concealed through the use of a nominee who allows the borrower to use the nominee's name and credit history to apply for a loan. Fictitious/stolen identity. A fictitious/stolen identity may be used on the loan application. The applicant may be involved in an identity theft scheme: the applicant's name, personal identifying information, and credit history are used without the true person's knowledge. Inflated appraisals. A corrupt home appraiser acts in collusion with a borrower and provides a misleading appraisal report to the lender. The report inaccurately states an inflated property value. Foreclosure schemes. The perpetrator identifies homeowners who are at risk of defaulting on loans or whose houses are already in foreclosure. Perpetrators mislead the homeowners into believing that they can save their homes in exchange for a transfer of the deed and up-front fees. The perpetrator profits from these schemes by remortgaging the property or pocketing fees paid by the homeowner. Equity skimming. An investor may use a straw buyer, false income documents, and false credit reports to obtain a mortgage loan in the straw buyer's name. Subsequent to closing, the straw buyer signs the property over to the investor in a quit claim deed, which relinquishes all rights to the property and provides no guaranty to title. The investor does not make any mortgage payments and rents the property until foreclosure takes place several months later. Air loans. This is a nonexistent property loan where there is usually no collateral. An example of an air loan would be where a broker invents borrowers and properties, establishes accounts for payments, and maintains custodial accounts for escrows. They may set up an office with a bank of telephones, each one used as the employer, appraiser, credit agency, and so on, for verification purposes. Hedge fund fraud. Hedge funds (HFs) are private investment partnerships that routinely accept only high-wealth clients willing to invest at least hundreds of thousands of dollars. Historically, these high-wealth investors were deemed "financially sophisticated," and, as a result, HFs have been unregulated and are not required to register with any federal or state regulatory agency. More recently, many middle-class investors have been exposed to HFs through ancillary investments such as pensions and endowments. There are about 9,000 HFs currently operating, with over a trillion dollars in assets under management.

White Collar Crime

late 1930s, the distinguished criminologist Edwin Sutherland first used the phrase "white-collar crime" to describe the criminal activities of the rich and powerful. He defined white-collar crime as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation." As he saw it, his fellow sociologists had come to the conclusion that crime was a result of "feeblemindedness, psychopathic deviations, slum neighborhoods and 'deteriorated' families"; it was believed that less than 2 percent of crime came from members of the upper echelons of society. But Sutherland believed this outlook was not only biased, but blinkered, failing to take into account theft that was taking place in plain sight by the 'robber barons' - Cornelius Vanderbilt of railroads; John D. Rockefeller of oil. Sutherland viewed this as a conspiracy of the wealthy to use their position to engage in commerce without regard for others. Gave the right to take from those poor, cloaked as a upstanding member of society. Sutherland believed that the great majority of white-collar criminals did not become the subject of criminological study. Yet the cost of white-collar crime is probably several times greater than all the crimes customarily regarded as the crime problem. because actions were handled by civil courts because injured parties were more concerned with recovering their losses than with seeing the offenders punished criminally in contrast to street crimes, white-collar offenses breed distrust in economic and social institutions, lower public morale, and undermine faith in business and government modern definitions include: broader and include both middle-income Americans and corporate titans who use the marketplace for their criminal activity Included within recent views of white-collar crime are such acts as income tax evasion, credit card fraud, and bankruptcy fraud. Other white-collar criminals use their positions of trust in business or government to commit crimes. Their activities might include pilfering, soliciting bribes or kickbacks, and embezzlement. Some white-collar criminals set up business for the sole purpose of victimizing the general public. They engage in land swindles (i.e., representing a swamp as a choice building site), securities theft, medical fraud, and so on. The crimes of illicit entrepreneurship are divided into three distinct categories: white-collar crime, green crime, and (transnational) organized crime. White-collar crime involves illegal activities of people and institutions whose acknowledged purpose is illegal profit through legitimate business transactions. Green criminology is concerned with the study of environmental harm, environmental laws, and environmental regulation. Organized crime involves illegal activities of people and organizations whose acknowledged purpose is profit through illegitimate business enterprise.

White-collar swindle

A crime in which people use an ongoing business enterprise to fraudulently expropriate money from unsuspecting victims. Subprime Mortgage Swindles • Foreclosure Rescue Scams • Religious Swindles

The Concept of Enterprise Crime

Because they are so connected, these three broad categories of crime often overlap: Corporate execs, in order to increase profits, may engage in environmental crimes. Green criminals may disguise their acts through elaborate corporate structures employing corrupt business practices. Organized criminals may buy legitimate businesses to launder money. Business enterprise crimes taint and corrupt the free market system. They mix and match illegal and legal methods and legal and illegal products in all phases of commercial activity. They involve illegal business practices (embezzlement, price fixing, pollution, dumping, bribery, and so on) to merchandise what are normally legitimate commercial products (securities, medical care, disposing of computer equipment). They can also involve using standard business methods and accounting to market illegal goods (drugs) and services (gambling, money laundering). While we sometimes think of enterprise crimes as a new phenomenon, they have been around for hundreds of years, ever since the Industrial Revolution began. The period between 1750 and 1850 witnessed the widespread and unprecedented emergence of financial offenses—such as fraud and embezzlement—frequently perpetrated by respectable middle-class offenders as the banking and commercial systems developed. Not surprisingly, scholars have long recognized that some unscrupulous businesspeople use their position of trust to fleece the public. In 1907, pioneering sociologist Edward Alsworth Ross recognized the phenomenon when he coined the phrase "the criminaloid" to describe the kind of person who hides behind his or her image as a pillar of the community and paragon of virtue to get personal gain through any means necessary First, these are business crimes, which cost society more annually than all of the street crimes combined. They are made up of bank frauds, stock swindles, or transnational crime and they lead to occupational deaths; product tampering; pollution, some committed through stealth and fraud, but some through violence. Let's research these enterprise crimes.

Anti Organized Crime Laws

Congress has passed a number of laws that have made it easier for agencies to bring transnational gangs to justice. One of the first measures aimed directly at organized crime was the Interstate and Foreign Travel or Transportation in Aid of Racketeering Enterprises Act (Travel Act): prohibits travel in interstate commerce or use of interstate facilities with the intent to promote, manage, establish, carry on, or facilitate an unlawful activity; it also prohibits the actual or attempted engagement in these activities. In 1970, Congress passed the Organized Crime Control Act. Title IX of the act, probably its most effective measure, is the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act - Federal legislation that enables prosecutors to bring additional criminal or civil charges against people whose multiple criminal acts constitute a conspiracy. RICO features monetary penalties that allow the government to confiscate all profits derived from criminal activities. Originally intended to be used against organized criminals, RICO has also been used against white-collar criminals. - RICO did not create new categories of crimes but rather new categories of offenses in racketeering activity, which it defined as involvement in two or more acts prohibited by 24 existing federal and 8 state statutes. The offenses listed in RICO include state-defined crimes (such as murder, kidnapping, gambling, arson, robbery, bribery, extortion, and narcotics violations) and federally defined crimes (such as bribery, counterfeiting, transmission of gambling information, prostitution, and mail fraud). individual convicted under RICO is subject to 20 years in prison and a $25,000 fine. Additionally, the accused must forfeit to the U.S. government any interest in a business in violation of RICO. These penalties are much more potent than simple conviction and imprisonment.

RICO is designed to limit patterns of organized criminal activity by prohibiting involvement in acts intended to do the following:

Derive income from racketeering or the unlawful collection of debts and use or investment of such income Acquire through racketeering an interest in or control over any enterprise engaged in interstate or foreign commerce Conduct business through a pattern of racketeering Conspire to use racketeering as a means of making income, collecting loans, or conducting business

Sherman Antitrust Act

Law that subjects to criminal or civil sanctions any person "who shall make any contract or engage in any combination or conspiracy" in restraint of interstate commerce.

Lure

Neal Shover and Peter Grabosky introduced the concept of "lure" to help explain why some people choose the illegal yet alluring benefits of enterprise crime: The lure of enterprise crime has diverse sources. When states create loopholes in the law that provide criminal opportunities, someone is bound to take advantage of the error. As the supply of lure expands, so too will the number of people willing to risk legal censure to acquire financial benefits. The lure of crime expands in the absence of capable control systems. When financial oversight was absent in the United States economic markets, the crash of 2008 became inevitable.

Rational Choice- Greed

One view of enterprise crime is that greedy people rationally choose to take shortcuts to acquire wealth, believing that the potential profits far outweigh future punishments. Most believe they will not get caught; they are far too clever to be detected by mere civil servants who work for government agencies.

Rationalization/Neutralization View

Rationalizing guilt is a common trait of enterprise criminals Donald Cressey found that the door to solving personal financial problems through criminal means is opened by the rationalizations people develop for white-collar crime: "Some of our most respectable citizens got their start in life by using other people's money temporarily." "In the real estate business, there is nothing wrong about using deposits before the deal is closed." "All people steal when they get in a tight spot." Offenders use these and other rationalizations to resolve the conflict they experience over engaging in illegal behavior. only providing a service that people want, even if it's illegal. When asked, enterprise criminals often use techniques of neutralization to defuse guilt: (1) everyone else does it, (2) it's not my fault or responsibility, and (3) no one is hurt except insurance companies and they are wealthy. slides: People develop rationalizations for white-collar crime • Offenders use rationalizations to resolve the conflict they experience over engaging in illegal behavior • Denying the Victim • Corporate offenders neutralizing wrongdoing when the target is a fellow business person or business organization

Self-Control View

Travis Hirschi and Michael Gottfredson suggest that the motives that produce enterprise crimes—quick benefits with minimal effort—are the same as those that produce any other criminal behaviors. Enterprise criminals have low self-control and are inclined to follow momentary impulses without considering the long-term costs of such behavior commit enterprise crimes are the most impulsive of the bunch. Hirschi and Gottfredson collected data showing that the demographic distribution of white-collar crime is similar to other crimes. For example, gender, race, and age ratios are the same for crimes such as embezzlement and fraud as they are for street crimes such as burglary and robbery. Slides: White-collar offenders have low self-control and are inclined to follow momentary impulses without considering the long-term costs of such behavior.

Controlling Transnational Crime

Typically in the hands of federal agencies. There are several international groups aimed and combating transnational gangs: • Eurasian Organized Crime Working Group • Central European Working Group • Southeast European Cooperative Initiative • Anti-Organized Crime Laws

ORganized crime today

is transnational: With the aid of the Internet and instant communications, groups are operating on a global scale to traffic drugs and people, to launder money, and to sell arms. Eastern European crime families are active abroad and in the United States. Russian organized crime has become a major problem for law enforcement agencies. Mexican and Latin American groups are quite active in the drug trade; Asian crime families are involved in smuggling and other illegal activities. The evolution of organized crime: Organized criminals used to be white ethnics—Jews, Italians, and Irish—but today African Americans, Latinos, and other groups have become involved in organized crime activities. The old-line "families" are now more likely to use their criminal wealth and power to buy into legitimate businesses. The most common view of organized crime today is an ethnically diverse group of competing gangs dedicated to extortion or to providing illegal goods and services. Efforts to control organized crime have been stepped up by the federal government, which has used anti-racketeering (RICO) statutes to arrest syndicate leaders.

Cultural View

some organizations promote criminal enterprise in the same way that lower-class culture encourages the development of juvenile gangs and street crime. According to the cultural view, some enterprises cause crime by placing excessive demands on employees while at the same time maintaining a business climate tolerant of employee deviance. attitudes of closest coworkers and the perceived attitudes of executives have a more powerful control over decision making than the attitudes of outsiders—closest friends and business professors—whose more moderate views might have tempered the decision to commit crime holding the cultural view would point to the Enron scandal as a prime example of what happens when people work in organizations in which the cultural values stress profit over fair play, government scrutiny is limited and regulators are viewed as the enemy, and senior members encourage newcomers to believe that "greed is good." One method of controlling enterprise crime, then, is to redirect institutional culture and focus more on values and trust than profit and greed

Causes of Enterprise Crime

unlike most common-law crimes, enterprise crimes are not committed by impoverished teenagers living in the inner city but by people who are often well-off, highly educated businesspeople. In order to commit an enterprise crime, someone must have already obtained a position of power and trust.

White collar embezzlement and employee fraud

individuals' use of their positions to embezzle company funds or appropriate company property for themselves. Here the company or organization that employs the criminal, rather than an outsider, is the victim of white-collar crime. Aside from management, some frauds are those of blue-collar workers, some in direct pilferage of company products or goods. Workers often report they stole because of strain or conflict within the workplace. In the next vignette, a middleman shows her fraud scheme to market illegally diverted baby formula from Medicaid.

Corporate and organizational crime

A component of white-collar crime involves situations in which powerful institutions or their representatives willfully violate the laws that restrain these institutions from doing social harm or require them to do social good. These are socially injurious acts committed by people who control companies to further their business interests. The target of their crimes can be the general public, the environment, or even company workers. What makes these crimes unique is that the perpetrator is a legal fiction—a corporation—and not an individual. In reality, it is company employees or owners who commit corporate crimes and who ultimately benefit through career advancement or greater profits.

Rise of Transnational Organized Crime

A criminal enterprise that involves the planning and execution of the distribution of illicit materials or services by groups or networks of individuals working in more than one country. (TOC or transnational crime) is a form of organized crime operating across national borders. It involves groups or networks of individuals working in more than one state or even across cultures and nations, to plan and execute illegal business ventures. Cross-national gangs are often large criminal organizations, some with more than 20,000 members. According to criminologist Jay Albanese, the distinction between these new organizations that operate across borders and the traditional Mafia whose activities were bounded by neighborhood territory is actually not that great. They overlap in terms of the crimes committed, the offenders involved, and how criminal opportunities are exploited for profit. They are, he concludes, manifestations of the same underlying conduct and the same pool of criminal offenders who exploit similar criminal opportunities.

Pink Slime

A substance made by gathering waste trimming, cooking them so the fat separates easily from the muscle, and using a centrifuge to complete the separation.

Influence peddling in criminal justice

Agents of the criminal justice system have also been accused of influence peddling. Police have routinely been accused and convicted of accepting bribes from individuals engaged in illegal activities. Some have been convicted on charges that they have provided protection and given warning of planned raids on brothels, gambling dens, and drug houses. Even customs inspectors have been convicted on charges that they were in the pay of drug cartels for looking the other way as large shipments of illegal substances were brought across the border. judges have been accused of taking bribes in order to influence their decision making.

(Investment Swindles) Ponzi scheme

An investment fraud that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors. Keith Franklin Simmons - formulated an investment scheme called Black Diamond, which he promoted as a legitimate hedge fund involved in foreign currency trading. To help solicit investors from around the country, Simmons and his co-conspirators recruited "regional managers" to get investors involved, including friends, family, and acquaintances. These early investors were promised financial compensation for bringing new investors on board, so they in turn praised Black Diamond and its high rate of return to their friends, family, and acquaintances. Black Diamond began to collapse in on itself—there was not enough new money coming in to keep the old investors satisfied or to continue lining the pockets of the criminals running the fraud. So Simmons began a new Ponzi scheme and used the money from investors in the latest scheme to make some payments to the investors of the previous one while keeping the rest for himself and his partners in crime. Simmons received a 40-year prison sentence, one year for each million he stole which originated with Charles Ponzi. For Ponzi's schemes we look no farther than New England, where he bilked residents out of their money on postage stamp speculation scheme back in the 1920s. At a time when the annual interest rate for bank accounts was 5 percent, Ponzi promised investors that he could provide a 50 percent return in just 90 days. Ponzi initially bought a small number of international mail coupons in support of his scheme, but quickly switched to using incoming funds to pay off earlier investors. The most famous recent Ponzi scheme involved financier Bernard Madoff. Bernie Madoff, at his Park Avenue office, entranced his clients with his financial prowess, but he rarely, then later never, paid the margins and profits he had promised. He now is in Federal custody in Butner Correctional, a federal penitentiary in North Carolina.

EPA CID

Criminal Investigation Division Investigates: The illegal disposal of hazardous waste The export of hazardous waste without the permission of the receiving country The illegal discharge of pollutants to a body of water of the United States The removal and disposal of regulated asbestos-containing materials in a manner inconsistent with the law and regulations The illegal importation of certain restricted or regulated chemicals into the United States Tampering with a drinking water supply Mail fraud Wire fraud Conspiracy and money laundering relating to environmental criminal activities

White Collar Exploitation

Forcing victims to pay for services to which they have a clear right. when an individual abuses their power or position in an organization to extort or coerce people into making payments to them for services to which they are already entitled. If the payments are not made, the services for which the victim is entitled to are withheld. In most cases, exploitation occurs when the victim has a clear right to expect a service, and the offender threatens to withhold the service unless an additional payment or bribe is forthcoming. On the local and state levels, exploitation may occur when a government official who holds discretionary power—liquor license board members, food inspectors, fire inspectors—demand extortion money. People who want a license are told that unless they pay the board member he will turn down the request. Business owners are dependent on holding a license, and now can be told that unless they pay the board member their request for that business license will not be granted. A fire inspector demands payment for approving an addition to a business or demands that the owner of a restaurant pay him for an operating license to which they are by law entitled. Exploitation can also occur in private industry. Purchasing agents in large companies often demand a piece of the action for awarding contracts to suppliers and distributors. Business owners are dependent on holding a license, and now can be told that unless they pay the board member their request for that business license will not be granted. A fire inspector demands payment for approving an addition to a business or demands that the owner of a restaurant pay him for an operating license to which they are by law entitled. Unfortunately this exploitation reaches the criminal justice agencies. Business owners are requested to donate to the Police or Fire benevolent foundation or union which then has access to those monies, before the licenses are granted or charges are dismissed. Exploitation is particularly troubling in the criminal justice system when police officers threaten victims with arrest if they do not make payments or when judges bully defendants, threatening conviction unless they are paid off.

Robert Allen Stanford

His promises of lucrative returns on relatively safe certificates of deposit were often more than twice the going rate offered by mainstream banks. Stanford's investment opportunities sounded too good to be true, and unfortunately for investors, they were. Instead of the safe investments being promised, Stanford secretly used the money in very risky long-term real estate and private equity investments; $2 billion was actually lent to Stanford himself. Stanford's bank had misappropriated $8.5 billion in assets belonging to 30,000 clients in 131 countries. Stanford was convicted of fraud in 2012 and is currently serving a 110-year prison sentence. He is eligible for release in 2105.

Insider Trading

Illegal buying of stock in a company based on information provided by someone who has a fiduciary interest in the company, such as an employee or an attorney or accountant retained by the firm. Federal laws and the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission require that all profits from such trading be returned and provide for both fines and a prison sentence. The information can be used to buy and sell securities, giving the trader an unfair advantage over the general public. As originally conceived, insider trading made it illegal for corporate employees with direct knowledge of market-sensitive information to use it for their own benefit. , by buying stock in a small company that is being taken over by their employer. In recent years, the definition of insider trading has been expanded by federal courts to include employees of financial institutions, such as law or banking firms, who use illegally obtained confidential information on pending corporate actions to purchase stock or give the information to a third party so that party can buy shares in the company. Courts have ruled that such actions are deceptive and violate security trading codes Often, high profile figures, such as TV-diva Martha Stewart or PGA golfer, Phil Mickelson, have engaged in insider trading. Stewart served prison time while Mickelson paid lofty fines and was professionally sidelined. Because there is no such thing as making too much money, a great deal of chiseling takes place on the commodities and stock markets, where individuals who are already rich engage in deceptive practices that are prohibited by federal law in order to become even richer. Stockbrokers violate accepted practices when they engage in churning the client's account by repeated, excessive, and unnecessary buying and selling of stock. Other broker fraud includes front running, in which brokers place personal orders ahead of a customer's large order to profit from the market effects of the trade, and bucketing, which is skimming customer trading profits by falsifying trade information Thus, securities, known as corporate stocks and commodities, remains where the big money is. Trade information on securities, mergers and other adjacent factors that cause the stock market to move are often involved in securities chiseling. Unfair advantages in these markets are supposed to be regulated and under security trading codes and employees of financial companies, banks and insurance companies face scrutiny and penalties if they violate the rules.

Italian Organized Crime Groups

Italian criminal societies, aka the Mafia, are active in Italy and impact the world. There are several groups currently active in the United States: the Sicilian Mafia, the Camorra or Neapolitan Mafia, the 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia, and the Sacra Corona Unita (United Sacred Crown). These groups have approximately 25,000 members total, with 250,000 affiliates worldwide. There are more than 3,000 members and affiliates of the Italian Mafia in the U.S., scattered mostly throughout major cities in the Northeast, the Midwest, California, and the South. largest presence centers around New York, southern New Jersey, and Philadelphia. involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. They have been involved in heroin trafficking for decades, as well as illegal gambling, political corruption, extortion, kidnapping, fraud, counterfeiting, infiltration of legitimate businesses, murders, bombings, and weapons trafficking. Industry experts in Italy estimate that their worldwide criminal activity is worth more than $100 billion annually.

characteristics of Russian organized crime in the post-Soviet era:

Russian criminals make extensive use of the state governmental apparatus to protect and promote their criminal activities. For example, most businesses in Russia—legal, quasi-legal, and illegal—must operate with the protection of a krysha (roof). The protection is often provided by police or security officials employed outside their "official" capacities for this purpose. In other cases, officials are "silent partners" in criminal enterprises that they, in turn, protect. As Communism collapsed, the privatization of industry resulted in the massive use of state funds for criminal gain. Valuable properties are purchased through insider deals for much less than their true value and then resold for lucrative profits. Criminals have been able to directly influence the state's domestic and foreign policy to promote the interests of organized crime, either by attaining public office themselves or by buying public officials.

Influence peddling in the government

Sheldon Silver, speaker of New York State's assembly and one of its most powerful politicians, was convicted of numerous charges of influence peddling. In one scheme, he secretly directed $500,000 in state money to Dr. Robert Taub's mesothelioma research at Columbia University. In return, the doctor gave Silver leads on his patients who were suffering from the deadly effects of asbestos exposure. Silver then directed those patients to the personal injury firm Weitz & Luxenberg, which paid Silver $3 million in referral fees. In the second scheme, Silver directed two major developers to use the law firm Goldberg & Iryami for litigation challenging city tax assessments. That firm secretly paid Silver $700,000 in referral fees (2015) It has become all too common for elected and appointed government officials to be forced to resign or even to be jailed for accepting bribes to use their influence. At local and state levels, exploitation may occur when a government official who holds discretionary power—liquor license board members, food inspectors, fire inspectors—demand extortion money. Business owners are dependent on holding a license, and now can be told that unless they pay the board member their request for that business license will not be granted. A fire inspector demands payment for approving an addition to a business or demands that the owner of a restaurant pay him for an operating license to which they are by law entitled.

Telemarketing Swindles

Telemarketing swindles occur when someone calls the victim, makes a false statement, and the misrepresentation causes the victim to give money to the caller.

Securitization

The process by which vendors take individual subprime loans and bundle them into large pools and sell them as securities.

Main activties of transnational organized crime

The traditional sources of income are derived from providing illicit materials, such as narcotics, and using force to enter into and maximize profits in legitimate businesses. Income is generated from such activities as narcotics distribution, extortion, gambling, pornography, and cargo theft rings. Members use cyberspace to communicate and promote their explicit activities

Health Care Fraud

There are numerous health care-related schemes, including: Billing for services that were never rendered by using genuine patient information to fabricate entire claims or by adding to claims with charges for procedures or services that did not take place. Billing for more expensive services or procedures than were actually provided or performed, commonly known as "upcoding." This practice requires "inflation" of the patient's diagnosis code to a more serious condition consistent with the false procedure code. Performing medically unnecessary services solely for the purpose of generating insurance payments. This scheme occurs most often in nerve-conduction and other diagnostic-testing schemes. Some Southern California clinics performed unnecessary, and sometimes harmful, surgeries on patients who had been recruited and paid to have these unnecessary surgeries performed. Misrepresenting noncovered treatments as medically necessary covered treatments for purposes of obtaining insurance payments. This scheme occurs in cosmetic-surgery in which noncovered cosmetic procedures such as nose jobs, tummy tucks, liposuction, or breast augmentations are billed to patients' insurers as deviated-septum repairs, hernia repairs, or lumpectomies. One reason that thieves found Medicare an inviting target is because it operated under a system that paid providers first and investigated later. The so-called "pay and chase method" gave abusers 90 days' lag time to fleece the government out of millions before authorities were aware a crime had been committed A central target of medical fraud is the federal Medicaid program. The Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that 6 percent of all Medicaid payments (more than $12 billion) should not have been paid due to erroneous billing or payment, inadequate provider documentation of services to back up the claims, and/or outright fraud. The government has attempted to tighten control over the industry in order to restrict the opportunity for physicians to commit fraud. Health care companies providing services to federal health care programs are also regulated by federal laws that prohibit kickbacks and self-referrals. Health care fraud is expected to continue to rise as people live longer and produce a greater demand for Medicare benefits. In the future, the utilization of long- and short-term care facilities such as skilled nursing, assisted living, and hospice services will expand substantially. Additionally, fraudulent billings and medically unnecessary services billed to health care insurers are prevalent throughout the country and are expected to grow in the future.

Transnational Gangs

Traditional Eurocentric gangs are being replaced by transnational mega-gangs. Some, such as the Crips, Bloods, and MS-13, have expanded from local street gangs to national mega-gangs with thousands of members. The Sureños is an alliance of hundreds of individual Mexican American street gangs that originated in Southern California. Sureños gang members' main sources of income are retail-level distribution of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine within prison systems and in the community as well as extortion of drug distributors on the streets. Some members have direct links to Mexican drug traffickers, brokering large drug transactions; they are also involved in other criminal activities such as assault, carjacking, home invasion, homicide, and robbery. While most members remain in Southern California cities, the gang has spread significantly and can be found throughout much of the United States international gangs based in Asia, eastern Europe, North, South, and Latin America use the Internet and IT devices to facilitate their operations across nations and continents. Emerging transnational crime syndicates are primarily located in nations whose governments are too weak to present effective opposition believe that the government is poised to interfere with their illegal activities, they will carry out a terror campaign, killing police and other government officials to achieve their goals. Easier international travel, expanded world trade, and financial transactions that cross national borders have enabled them to branch out of local and regional crime to target international victims and develop criminal networks within more prosperous countries and regions. Africa, a continent that has experienced fierce political turmoil, has also seen the rise of transnational gangs. African criminal enterprises in Nigeria, Ghana, and Liberia have developed quickly since the 1980s due to the globalization of the world's economies and the great advances in communications technology. Nigerian criminal enterprises, primarily engaged in drug trafficking and financial frauds, are the most significant of these groups and operate in more than 80 countries. They are infamous for their email-based financial frauds, which cost the United States alone an estimated $1 billion to $2 billion each year.

Influence peddling

Using an institutional position to grant favors and sell information to which their co-conspirators are not entitled. Exploiters force victims to pay for services to which they have a clear right; they are engaging in extortion. In contrast, influence peddlers take bribes to use their positions to grant favors and sell information to which their co-conspirators are not entitled. In sum, in crimes of exploitation, the victim is threatened and forced to pay, whereas the victim of influence peddling is the organization compromised by its employees for their own interests. from slides Individuals holding important institutional positions sell power, influence, and information • Influence Peddling in Criminal Justice - criminal justice actors accepting bribes • Influence Peddling in Business

health care fraud

While at present we are under a health care crisis of COVID-19, the past health care frauds give us pause as to how to control health care costs in that industry. One regulation, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 made Health Care Fraud to be a federal criminal offense punishable by prison terms up to 10 years and other penalties. If death is caused by the fraud, the criminal may be sentenced to life in prison. Bank frauds and tax evasion constantly plagues our financial system and have a long history of costs and convictions. Each banking transaction is heavily regulated yet the temptation for fraud exists because of greed surrounding money.

Corporate Crime

White-collar crime involving a legal violation by a corporate entity, such as price-fixing, restraint of trade, or hazardous waste dumping. white-collar criminals become involved in criminal conspiracies designed to improve the market share or profitability of their corporations.

compliance strategies

aim for law conformity without the necessity of detecting, processing, or penalizing individual violators. At a minimum, they ask for cooperation and self-policing among the business community. Compliance systems attempt to create conformity by giving companies economic incentives to obey the law. They rely on administrative efforts to prevent unwanted conditions before they occur. Compliance systems depend on the threat of economic sanctions or civil penalties to control corporate violators. One method of compliance is to set up administrative agencies to oversee business activity. The legislation creating these agencies usually spells out the penalties for violating regulatory standards. It is easier and less costly to be in compliance, the theory goes, than to pay costly fines and risk criminal prosecution for repeat violations. Moreover, the federal government bars people and businesses from receiving government contracts if they have engaged in repeated business law violations. force corporate boards to police themselves and take more oversight responsibility. the federal government enacted the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) legislation in 2002 to combat fraud and abuse in publicly traded companies. This law limits the services auditing firms can perform in order to make sure accounting firms do not fraudulently collude with corporate officers; it places greater responsibilities on boards to preserve an organization's integrity and reputation. It also penalizes any attempts to alter or falsify company records to delude shareholders: - Whoever knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, covers up, falsifies, or makes a false entry in any record, document, or tangible object with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States or any case filed under title 11, or in relation to or contemplation of any such matter or case, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. attempt to create a marketplace incentive to obey the law. Compliance strategies avoid punishing, stigmatizing, and shaming businesspeople by focusing on the act, rather than the actor, in white-collar crime.

International White Collar Crime

country of Bangladesh which had currency in its banks stolen electronically by a North Korean hackers who found the perfect scam. Money to the tune of 1 billion in unsecured international wire transfers. This example is much grander that the average categories of WC crime found in the wide range of behaviors involving individuals acting alone and within the context of a business structure. The victims of white-collar crime can be the general public, the organization that employs the offender, or a competing organization. There have been numerous attempts to create subcategories or typologies of white-collar criminality.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

enforces above laws, The EPA has successfully prosecuted significant violations across all major environmental statutes, including data fraud cases indiscriminate hazardous waste dumping that resulted in serious injuries and death; industry-wide ocean dumping by cruise ships; oil spills that caused significant damage to waterways, wetlands, and beaches; international smuggling of CFC refrigerants that damage the ozone layer and increase skin cancer risk; and illegal handling of hazardous substances such as pesticides and asbestos that exposed children, the poor, and other especially vulnerable groups to potentially serious illness

Forms of Green Crime

illegal logging, illegal wildlife exports, illegal fishing, illegal dumping, illegal pollutingasses

National Whistle Blower Center

nonprofit educational advocacy organization that works for the enforcement of environmental laws, nuclear safety, civil rights, and government and industry accountability through the support and representation of employee whistleblowers.

Lacey Act

prohibits interstate transport of wild animals dead or alive without federal permit.(protects both plants and wildlife by creating civil and criminal penalties for a wide array of violations.)

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

sets industry standards for the proper use of such chemicals as benzene, arsenic, lead, and coke. Intentional violation of OSHA standards can result in criminal penalties.

Work Safety Violations

Some corporations have endangered the lives of their own workers by maintaining unsafe conditions in their plants and mines. It has been estimated that more than 20 million workers have been exposed to hazardous materials while on the job. Each year about 4 million workers are injured and 4,000 killed on the job. Some industries have been hit particularly hard by complaints and allegations.

United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora

(CITES) serves as the primary vehicle for regulating wildlife trade. Despite these controls, it has been argued that one way to effectively control the movements of creatures across regions is to allow commercial export of wildlife. However, where legalized trade is allowed, experience shows that this opens up opportunities for forging permits and other documentation, as well as for other types of enabling activity. Opening up a legal export trade in captive-bred birds would provide opportunities for laundering wild-caught birds and concealing rare species of similar appearance. In 1989, CITES prohibited international commercial trade in all elephant ivory. Following decades of a successful international ban on ivory trading, CITES approved the export of more than 150 metric tons of government-stockpiled ivory from Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and South Africa.

Endangered Species Act of 1973

A law requiring the federal government to protect all species listed as endangered. The act has been amended and in 1981 was changed to include illegal trade in plants, fish, and wildlife both domestically and abroad. The maximum penalty was increased to $10,000 with possible imprisonment for one year. Additionally, the mental state required for a criminal violation was increased to "knowingly and willfully"; civil penalties were expanded to apply to negligent violations.

Illegal Restraint of Trade and Price Fixing

A restraint of trade involves a contract or conspiracy designed to stifle competition, create a monopoly, artificially maintain prices, or otherwise interfere with free market competition. The control of restraint of trade violations has its legal basis in the Sherman Antitrust Act, which subjects to criminal or civil sanctions any person "who shall make any contract or engage in any combination or conspiracy" in restraint of interstate commerce. The Sherman Act carries maximum penalties of a $100 million criminal fine for corporations and a $1 million criminal fine and 10 years in prison for individuals. The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine. The act outlaws conspiracies between corporations designed to control the marketplace.

Combatting transnational organized crime

Assess the efforts to control transnational organized crime: Efforts to combat transnational organized crime are typically in the hands of federal agencies. One approach is to form inter-the hands of federal agencies. One approach is to form inter-the hands of federal agencies. One approach is to form international working groups to collect intelligence, share information, and plot unified strategies among member nations. The FBI belongs to several international working groups aimed at combating transnational gangs in various parts of the world. While international cooperation is now common and law enforcement agencies are willing to work together to fight transnational gangs, these criminal organizations are extremely hard to eradicate.

Tax Evasion

Another important aspect of client fraud is tax evasion. Here the victim is the government that is cheated by one of its clients, the errant taxpayer to whom it extended credit by allowing the taxpayer to delay paying taxes on money he or she had already earned. Tax fraud is a particularly challenging area for criminological study because so many U.S. citizens regularly underreport their income, and it is often difficult to separate honest error from deliberate tax evasion. U.S. Internal Revenue Code, section 7201, which states: Any person who willfully attempts in any manner to evade or defeat any tax imposed by this title or the payment thereof shall, in addition to other penalties provided by law, be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than $100,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both, together with the costs of prosecution.

Armenian Power

Armenian Power (AP), an international organized crime group whose illegal activities allegedly range from bank fraud and identity theft to violent extortion and kidnapping. In one scheme, AP caused more than $2 million in losses when members secretly installed "skimming" devices in cash register credit card swipe machines at Southern California 99 Cents Only stores to steal customer account information and then used it to create counterfeit debit and credit cards to empty accounts. With 200 known members, AP got its start as a neighborhood gang in the 1980s, but has now morphed into a transnational crime group with close ties to other gangs, including the Mexican Mafia. leadership also maintains ties to Armenia and Russia and deals directly with top organized crime figures in those countries, even to the point of using respected organized crime mediators—known as "thieves-in-law"—to settle disputes government indicted 90 Armenian Power leaders, members, and associates, including the head man, Mher Darbinyan, aka "Hollywood Mike" and "Capone." Darbinyan was indicted for a bank fraud scheme that used middlemen and runners to deposit and cash hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent checks drawn on the accounts of elderly bank customers and businesses. He also organized and operated a sophisticated debit card skimming scheme that involved the installation and use of skimmers to steal thousands of customers' debit card numbers and PIN codes. He was eventually sentenced to 32 years in prison; 87 other AP members have been convicted. Organized groups prey upon women in the poorest areas of Europe—Romania, Ukraine, Bosnia—and sell them into virtual sexual slavery. - prostitutes

Asian Transnational Crime Groups

Asia-based transnational crime groups are also quite active in such areas as human trafficking, narcotics, and money laundering. Chinese gangs are involved in importing heroin from the neighboring Golden Triangle area and distributing it throughout the country. They are also involved in gambling and prostitution, activities that had all but disappeared under Mao Zedong's Communist regime. two leading organized crime problems in Cambodia are drug production/trafficking and human trafficking. Drug traffickers also use Cambodia as a transit country and traffic Cambodian women into Thailand for sex. In Taiwan, the number-one organized crime problem is heijin, the penetration of mobsters into the legitimate business sector and the political arena. Gangs are now heavily involved in the businesses of bid-rigging, waste disposal, construction, cable television networks, telecommunications, stock trading, and entertainment. in the mid-1980s, many criminals have successfully run for public office in order to protect themselves from police crackdowns. Taiwan's gangs are involved in gambling, prostitution, loan sharking, debt collection, extortion, and gang violence; kidnapping for ransom is also a serious concern.

Cyberspaces and transnational crimes

Because cross-national and transnational gangs are a product of the cyber age, members often use cyberspace to communicate and promote their illicit activities. Gangs typically use cell phones (voice and text) to conduct drug transactions and prearrange meetings with customers. Prepaid cell phones are used when conducting drug trafficking operations. Social networking sites, encrypted email, Twitter, and instant messaging are commonly used by gang members to communicate with one another and with drug customers. Gang members use social media such as YouTube and Facebook as well as personal web pages to communicate and boast about their gang membership and related activities. Some use the Internet to intimidate rival gang members and maintain websites to recruit new members. Gang members flash gang signs and wear gang colors in videos and photos posted on the Web. Sometimes, rivals "spar" on Internet message boards or Facebook. They rely on encrypted messenger services like WhatsApp, Telegram, and others to coordinate their activities and warn associates about police raids.

White Collar Fraud

Bernie Madoff - Swindler on Wall Street Madoff turned 80 in 2018. He apparently marked the occasion quietly at the medium security Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, N. Carolina, where he is in the 10th year of a 150-year sentence. 65 billion

Characteristics of Transnational Organized Crime

Chracteristics Transnational organized crime is a conspiratorial activity, involving the coordination of numerous people in the planning and execution of illegal acts or in the pursuit of a legitimate objective by unlawful means (e.g., threatening a legitimate business to get a stake in it). An offense is transnational if: It is committed in more than one state or nation. It is committed in one state or nation but a substantial part of its preparation, planning, direction, or control takes place in another state or nation. It is committed in one state or nation but involves an organized criminal group that engages in criminal activities in more than one state or nation. It is committed in one state of nation but has substantial effects in another state of nation. Transnational organized crime involves continuous commitment by primary members, although individuals with specialized skills may be brought in as needed. Transnational organized crime is usually structured along hierarchical lines—a chieftain supported by close advisers, lower subordinates, and so on. Transnational organized crime has economic gain as its primary goal, although power and status may also be motivating factors. Economic gain is achieved through global supply of illegal goods and services, including drugs, sex slaves, arms, and pornography. In addition to providing illegal material such as narcotics, contemporary global syndicates engage in business crimes such as laundering illegal money through legitimate businesses, land fraud, and computer crime. Transnational criminal syndicates employ predatory tactics, such as intimidation, violence, and corruption. Transnational organized crime groups are quick and effective in controlling and disciplining their members, associates, and victims, and will not hesitate to use lethal violence against those who flaunt organizational rules. Transnational crime depends heavily on the instruments of the IT age: the Internet, global communications, rapid global transportation systems, universal banking systems, and global credit card and payment systems. Transnational organized crime groups do not include terror organizations, though there may be overlap. Some terror groups are involved in criminality to fund their political objectives, and some have morphed from politically motivated organizations to ones solely involved in for-profit criminal activity. Transnational criminal organizations may aid terror groups with transportation and communication.

Client fraud

Client fraud occurs when an organization that either: (a)advances credit, (b)provides loans, (c)supports people financially, or (d)reimburses them for services provided to a third party is the target of criminal activity. Victims of client fraud might be an insurance company that pays out on false claims or repays health care providers that put in false claims for bogus charges. Included in this category are insurance fraud, bank fraud, credit card fraud, fraud related to welfare and Medicare programs, and tax evasion. • Theft by an economic client from an organization that advances credit to its clients or sometimes reimburses them for services rendered types Health Care Fraud • Bank Fraud • Tax Evasion

Citizen water monitoring organizations

Community members help monitor water quality so they can help direct state action as well as identify sources of pollution that impact their communities. Citizen water-monitoring organizations engage in informal surveillance activities that are designed to identify environmental violations, and they can report those violations to authorities.

White Collar Chiseling

Crimes that involve using illegal means to cheat an organization, its consumers, or both on a regular basis. Involves regularly cheating people or organizations by deception or deceit a business owner regularly cheating customers and clients, or an employee stealing from the organization they work for, by deception or deceit. Because the schemes are so subtle, the victim may not even realize they have been cheated. Chiseling the public can also involve schemes such as short weighting—intentionally tampering with the accuracy of scales used to weigh products in markets—or adding filler to what is being sold as unadulterated food products. A few years ago, whistleblowers let on that almost 70 percent of ground meat sold in supermarkets contained finely textured beef, Auto repair industry is rife for cheating customers by charging for unneeded auto maintenance. Employees will often make a side business stealing from the organization they work for. Chiselers inevitably target charge for something they never delivered or overbill them for services they did receive. By subtle deceiving the victim may not even realize they have been cheated. Hundreds of New York City cab drivers have lost their licenses overcharging customers by activating a switch that alters the meter, charging passengers out-of-town rates even though the ride has taken place within city limits. A California bank programmer, charged each account a fraction of a penny when rounding out the deposit account interest monthly. No one knew, but when discovered at that point in the 1980s, it wasn't even a crime. Fleeing to Brazil, where no extradition exists made this crime payoff.

four types of market conditions are considered so inherently anticompetitive that federal courts, through the Sherman Antitrust Act, have defined them as illegal per se, without regard to the facts or circumstances of the case:

Division of markets. Firms divide a region into territories, and each firm agrees not to compete in the others' territories. Tying arrangement. A corporation requires customers of one of its services to use other services it offers. For example, it would be an illegal restraint of trade if a railroad required that companies doing business with it or supplying it with materials ship all goods they produce on trains owned by the rail line. Group boycott. An organization or company boycotts retail stores that do not comply with its rules or desires. Price fixing. A conspiracy to set and control the price of a necessary commodity is considered an absolute violation of the act.

animal facts

Since 2008, African and Asian rhinoceros populations have been experiencing unprecedented intensification of poaching. Two subspecies, the northern white rhinoceros and the western black rhinoceros, are being shot into extinction; the black rhino population, which was 70,000 in 1960, is now about 2,500. Since 2010, record numbers of elephants, more than 30,000 per year, have been reported poached, and record amounts of contraband ivory have been seized by authorities. Why poach? Ivory is going for around $1,000 per pound on the black market. A pair of tusks measuring 92 inches along the outside curve and weighing over 100 pounds can fetch close to $100,000 on the black market. Rhino horns go for about $45,000. While they can be safely harvested from farmed rhinos (rhino horns grow back after trimming), that has not stopped poachers from decimating the species. From 2003 to 2014, illegal elephant killings in central Africa have been occurring at unsustainable levels relative to natural population growth. This means that elephants are dying faster than they are able to reproduce. West Africa is also thought to be suffering from unsustainable levels of elephant poaching

blue collar pilferage

Employee theft is most accurately explained by factors relevant to the work setting, such as job dissatisfaction and the workers' belief that they are being exploited by employers or supervisors; economic problems play a relatively small role in the decision to pilfer. • Systematic theft of company property by employees So, although employers attribute employee fraud to economic conditions and declining personal values, workers themselves say they steal because of strain and conflict.

to combat the influence and reach of Eurasian organized crime the FBI is involved in the following groups and activities:

Eurasian Organized Crime Working Group. Established in 1994, it meets to discuss and jointly address the transnational aspects of Eurasian organized crime that impact member countries and the international community in general. The member countries are Canada, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the United States, and Russia. Central European Working Group. This group is part of a project that brings together the FBI and central European law enforcement agencies to discuss cooperative investigative matters covering the broad spectrum of Eurasian organized crime. A principal concern is the growing presence of Russian and other Eurasian organized criminals in central Europe and the United States. The initiative works on practical interaction between the participating agencies to establish lines of communication and working relationships, to develop strategies and tactics to address transnational organized crime matters impacting the region, and to identify potential common targets. Southeast European Cooperative Initiative. This is an international organization intended to coordinate police and customs regional actions for preventing and combating transborder crime. It is headquartered in Bucharest, Romania, and has 12 fully participating member countries. The United States has been one of 14 countries with observer status since 1998. The initiative's center serves as a clearinghouse for information and intelligence sharing, allowing the quick exchange of information in a professional and trustworthy environment. The initiative also supports specialized task forces for countering transborder crime such as the trafficking of people, drugs, and cars; smuggling; financial crimes; terrorism; and other serious transborder crimes.

Foreign Currency exchange swindle

Foreign currency exchange swindle. These schemes are characterized by the use of false or deceptive sales practices, alleging high rates of return for minimal risk, to induce victims to invest in the foreign currency exchange market. The touted transactions either never occur, are inconsistent with the original sales pitches, or are executed for the sole purpose of generating excessive trading commissions in breach of fiduciary responsibilities to the victim client.

Green Crime

Involves a wide range of actions and outcomes that harm the environment and that stem from decisions about what is produced, where it is produced, and how it is produced • Environmental destruction and green crimes may outweigh attention to safety, with subsequent catastrophic consequences Acts involving illegal environmental harm that violate environmental laws and regulations. a type of enterprise crime involving violation of laws protecting the environment. Illegal dumping schemes are just part of the green crime problem. Environmental activists have long called attention to a variety of ecological threats that they feel should be deemed criminal: green crimes involve a wide range of actions and outcomes that harm the environment and that stem from decisions about what is produced, where it is produced, and how it is produced. Environmental activists have long called attention to a variety of ecological threats that they feel should be deemed criminal: green crimes involve a wide range of actions and outcomes that harm the environment and that stem from decisions about what is produced, where it is produced, and how it is produced. Global warming, overdevelopment, population growth, and other changes will continue to bring these issues front and center.

Professional Chiseling

It is not uncommon for professionals to use their positions to chisel clients. Pharmacists have been known to alter prescriptions or substitute low-cost generic drugs for more expensive name brands. In one of the most notorious cases in the nation's history, Kansas City pharmacist Robert R. Courtney was charged with fraud when it was discovered that he had been selling diluted mixtures of the medications Taxol, Gemzar, Paraplatin, and Platinol, which are used to treat a variety of illnesses, including pancreatic and lung cancer, advanced ovarian and breast cancer, and AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma. Some pharmacists do legitimate compounding of drugs, but dilution can lead to prolonged illnesses, lack of treatment or death.

Illegal Polluting

Most environmental crime statutes contain overlapping civil, criminal, and administrative penalty provisions, which gives the government latitude in enforcement. Over time, Congress has elevated some violations from misdemeanors to felonies and has increased potential jail sentences and fines for those convicted. Criminal environmental pollution is defined as the intentional or negligent discharge of a toxic or contaminating substance into the biosystem that is known to have an adverse effect on the natural environment or life. It may involve the ground release of toxic chemicals such as kepone, vinyl chloride, mercury, PCBs, and asbestos. Illegal and/or controlled air pollutants include hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), aerosols, asbestos, carbon monoxide, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), criteria air pollutants, lead, mercury, methane, nitrogen oxides , radon, refrigerants, and sulfur oxide . Water pollution is defined as the dumping of a substance that degrades or alters the quality of the waters to an extent that is detrimental for use by humans or by an animal or a plant that is useful to humans. This includes the disposal into rivers, lakes, and streams of: Excess fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticides from agricultural lands and residential areas Oil, grease, and toxic chemicals from urban runoff and energy production Sediment from improperly managed construction sites, crop and forest lands, and eroding streambanks Salt from irrigation practices and acid drainage from abandoned mines Bacteria and nutrients from livestock, pet wastes, and faulty septic systems

Enterprise Crime

Ongoing illegal activities by an individual or a group of individuals involved in commerce that either violate the laws regulating legitimate business or whose acknowledged purpose is profit through illegitimate commercial enterprise.

Cultural Property Trafficking

Organized crime groups have become involved in trafficking in cultural property. Antiques, artifacts, and relics stolen through illegal archaeological digs are sold to gangs who then smuggle the goods out of the country and sell them either through legitimate markets such as auctions and the Internet or in underground markets where collectors buy offered goods, no questions asked. Trafficking in cultural property is also becoming an important source for money laundering.

Migrant Smuggling

Organized crime groups profit from smuggling migrants. Criminals are increasingly providing smuggling services to irregular migrants to evade national border controls, migration regulations, and visa requirements. Most irregular migrants resort to the assistance of profit-seeking smugglers because as border controls have improved in developed nations, migrants are deterred from attempting to illegally cross them themselves and are diverted into the hands of smugglers.

Influence peddling. in business

People who hold power in a business may force those wishing to work with the company to pay them some form of bribe or gratuity to gain a contract. In the building industry, a purchasing agent may demand a kickback from contractors hoping to gain a service contract. Sometimes influence peddling can benefit both parties. Business-related bribery is not unique to the United States. In some foreign countries, soliciting bribes to do business is a common, even expected, practice. from slides Business officials forcing those wishing to work with the company to pay a bribe or kickback to gain a contract • Payola—routine practice in the record industry of paying radio stations and DJs to play songs

Piracy

Piracy is also linked to other forms of organized crime since it requires sophisticated intelligence collection networks and systematic corruption of local officials. Piracy is a key source of income for many in the local communities, who receive funds from ransoms that their own governments fail to provide.

Religious Swindles

Some create fraudulent charitable organizations and convince devout people to contribute to their seemingly worthwhile cause while pocketing the contributions for themselves. Others create investment funds based on religious values, hoping to draw investors wary of secular investments. These scammers sometimes place scripture verses on their promotional literature to comfort hesitant investors. Others take advantage of people seeking religious pilgrimages. Swindlers love the religious, taking advantage of their hope. In this time of religious weeks, Christians can remember that we're told not to be "doubting Thomases". But without doubts, Swindlers take in worshippers of all faiths: Jews, Muslims, Baptists, Lutherans, Catholics, the Mormons. Charities, mission relief, investment funds, based on religious values, hoping to draw investors wary of secular investments to convince devout people to contribute to their seemingly "angelic causes". These scammers sometimes place scripture verses on their promotional literature to comfort hesitant investors. Others take advantage of people seeking religious pilgrimages. In 2015, a Chicago travel agent, Rashid Minhas was sentenced to more than nine years in prison for selling bogus travel packages to devout Muslims who wanted to travel to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj. Minhas sold customers various travel packages to complete "Hajj," an obligatory, once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage for Muslims to the holy city of Mecca, according to the prosecution. Minhas falsely represented that each package included the required Saudi Arabian entry visa, even though the Saudi government had not accredited him as a representative. In this case, Minhas's clients were also stranded at airports around the U.S. because they could not travel to Saudi Arabia without the visa. He sold travel deals to at least 50 customers and deposited approximately $525,000 into his own accounts. Each devout Muslim wishes to visit Mecca in their lifetime and Minhas played on their beliefs.

Illegal Dumping

Some green criminals want to skirt local, state, and federal restrictions on dumping dangerous sub-stances in the environment. Rather than pay expensive processing fees they may secretly dispose of hazardous wastes in illegal dump sites. Illegally dumped wastes can either be hazardous or nonhazardous materials that are discarded in an effort to avoid either disposal fees or the time and effort required for proper disposal. Materials dumped ranged from used motor oil to waste from construction sites. One of the largest and fastest growing problems is the disposal of obsolete high-tech electronics, called e-waste, such as televisions, computers and computer monitors, notebooks and tablets, cell phones, and so on. In 2015, an estimated 42 million tons of e-waste was disposed of around the world the toxic material contained in electronic gear (such as lead) encourages illegal dumping in order to avoid recycling costs. Consequently a considerable amount of e-waste is sent abroad to developing nations for recycling, often in violation of international laws restricting such commerce.

Slides on Transnational Gangs

Some local street gangs have expanded from local street gangs to national mega-gangs • International gangs have emerged in Asia, Eastern Europe, North, South, and Latin America—usually in nations whose governments are too weak to present effective opposition • Easier international travel, trade, and financial transactions have enabled international targets and criminal networks in more prosperous countries

crime in Russia shares other characteristics that are common to organized crime elsewhere in the world:

Systematic use of violence, including both the threat and use of force Hierarchical structure Limited or exclusive membership Specialization in types of crime and a division of labor Military-style discipline, with strict rules and regulations for the organization as a whole Possession of high-tech equipment, including military weapons Threats, blackmail, and violence used to penetrate business management and assume control of commercial enterprises or, in some instances, to found their own enterprises with money from their criminal activities As a result of these activities, corruption and organized crime are globalized. Russian organized crime is active in Europe, Africa, Asia, and North and South America. Massive money laundering is now common, which allows Russian and foreign organized crime to flourish. In some cases, it is tied to terrorist funding. The organized crime threat to Russia's national security is now becoming a global threat. Russian organized crime operates both on its own and in cooperation with foreign groups. The latter cooperation often comes in the form of joint money laundering ventures. Russian criminals have become involved in killings for hire in central and western Europe, Israel, Canada, and the United States. In the United States, with the exception of extortion and money laundering, Russians have had little or no involvement in some of the more traditional types of organized crime, such as drug trafficking, gambling, and loan sharking. However, thousands of Russian immigrants are believed to be involved in criminal activity, primarily in Russian enclaves in New York City engaged in a broad array of frauds and scams, including health care fraud, insurance scams, stock frauds, antiquities swindles, forgery, and fuel tax evasion schemes. Russians are believed to be the main purveyors of credit card fraud in the United States.

White collar law enforcement systems

The Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution gives the federal government the authority to regulate white-collar crime. At the federal level, detection of white-collar crime is primarily in the hands of administrative departments and agencies Detection and enforcement are primarily in the hands of administrative departments and agencies, including the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service, the Secret Service, U.S. Customs, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Securities and Exchange Commission The decision to pursue criminal rather than civil violations usually is based on the seriousness of the case and the perpetrator's intent, actions to conceal the violation, and prior record. Enforcement generally is reactive (generated by complaints) rather than proactive (involving ongoing investigations or the monitoring of activities). Investigations are carried out by the various federal agencies and the FBI. If criminal prosecution is called for, the case will be handled by attorneys from the criminal, tax, antitrust, and civil rights divisions of the Justice Department. If insufficient evidence is available to warrant a criminal prosecution, the case will be handled civilly or administratively by some other federal agency. The Federal Trade Commission can issue a cease-and-desist order in antitrust or merchandising fraud cases. The number of state-funded technical assistance offices to help local prosecutors has increased significantly; more than 40 states offer such services. On the state and local levels, law enforcement officials have made progress in a number of areas, such as controlling consumer fraud. Local prosecutors pursue white-collar criminals more vigorously if they are part of a team effort involving a network of law enforcement agencies. National surveys of local prosecutors find that many do not consider white-collar crimes particularly serious problems. They are more willing to prosecute cases if the offense causes substantial harm and if other agencies fail to act. Relatively few prosecutors participate in interagency task forces designed to investigate white-collar criminal activity.

Controlling green crime

The United States and most other nations have passed laws making it a crime to pollute or damage the environment. Among environmental laws in the U.S. are the following: Clean Water Act (1972). Establishes and maintains goals and standards for U.S. water quality and purity. It was amended in 1987 to increase controls on toxic pollutants, and in 1990 to more effectively address the hazard of oil spills. Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (1986). Requires companies to disclose information about toxic chemicals they release into the air and water and dispose of on land. Endangered Species Act (1973). Designed to protect and recover endangered and threatened species of fish, wild-life, and plants in the United States and beyond. The law works in part by protecting species' habitats. Oil Pollution Act (1990). Enacted in the aftermath of the ExxonValdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound, this law streamlines federal response to oil spills by requiring oil storage facilities and vessels to prepare spill-response plans and provide for their rapid implementation. The law also increases polluters' liability for cleanup costs and damage to natural resources. The major enforcement arm against environmental crimes is the Environmental Protection Agency, which was given full law enforcement authority in 1988

organ trafficking

The demand for organs has out-stripped supply, creating an underground market for illicitly obtained organs. Desperate recipients and donors create an avenue ready for exploitation by international organ trafficking syndicates. Traffickers exploit the desperation of donors to improve the economic situation of themselves and their families, and they exploit the desperation of recipients who may have few other options to improve or prolong their lives. victims of trafficking in persons, those who fall prey to traffickers for the purpose of organ removal may be vulnerable by virtue of poverty. Traffickers may enlist the services of doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers, and health care professionals who are involved in legitimate activities when they are not participating in trafficking in persons for the purpose of organ removal

Financial Swindles

The pyramid scheme. Similar to Ponzi schemes, the money collected from newer victims of the fraud is paid to earlier victims to provide a veneer of legitimacy. In pyramid schemes, however, the victims themselves are induced to recruit further victims through the payment of recruitment commissions. Prime bank investment swindle. In these schemes, perpetrators claim to have access to a secret trading program endorsed by large financial institutions such as the Federal Reserve Bank, U.S. Treasury Department, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and so on. Perpetrators often claim the unusually high rates of return and low risk are the result of a worldwide "secret" exchange open only to the world's largest financial institutions. Victims are often drawn into prime bank investment frauds because the criminals use sophisticated terms and legal-looking documents, and claim the investments are insured against loss. Advance fee fraud. This category of fraud encompasses a broad variety of schemes designed to induce their victims into remitting up-front payments in exchange for the promise of goods, services, and/or prizes. Victims are informed that in order to participate in a promising investment opportunity, they must first pay various taxes and/or fees. Commodities swindle. These schemes typically involve the deceptive or fraudulent sale of commodity investments. Victims are duped into providing funds for commodities transactions that either never occur or are inconsistent with the original sales pitches. Alternatively, commodities market participants may attempt to illegally manipulate the market for a commodity by such actions as fraudulently reporting price information or cornering the market to artificially increase the price of the targeted commodity. Foreign currency exchange swindle. These schemes are characterized by the use of false or deceptive sales practices, alleging high rates of return for minimal risk, to induce victims to invest in the foreign currency exchange market. The touted transactions either never occur, are inconsistent with the original sales pitches, or are executed for the sole purpose of generating excessive trading commissions in breach of fiduciary responsibilities to the victim client.

Illegal Wildlife Exports

The smuggling of wildlife across national borders is a serious matter. 100 Exporters find a lucrative trade in the demand for such illicit wildlife commodities as tiger parts, caviar, elephant ivory, rhino horn, and exotic birds and reptiles. Wildlife contraband may include live pets, hunting trophies, fashion accessories, cultural artifacts, ingredients for traditional medicines, wild meat for human consumption (or bushmeat), and other products. Illegal profits can be immense. In some instances, endangered species are killed and their hides and body parts are illegally exported abroad. Tigers are the target of a highly lucrative illegal trade spanning countries and continents. These big cats are killed for their fur, which is prized on the black market, and for their body parts for traditional medicines and other uses. Elephants and rhinoceroses are prized by poachers for their tusks and horns. In addition to species endangered by poaching, there are also numerous problems presented by illegal wildlife exporting. Poachers imperil endangered species and threaten them with extinction. By evading government controls, they create the potential for introducing pests and diseases into formerly unaffected areas. They import non-native species that harm the receiving habitats. the global trade in illegal wildlife is a growing phenomenon and is now estimated to be $10 billion annually. The United States is estimated to purchase nearly 20 percent of all illegal wildlife and wildlife products on the market, perhaps as much as $3 billion annually. The trade is so lucrative because exotic animals and animal parts are enormously expensive, providing an economic incentive that proves irresistible to smugglers in third-world nations

Organized Crime

The third leg of enterprise crime, organized crime, involves ongoing criminal enterprise groups whose ultimate purpose is personal economic gain through illegitimate means. One component involves setting up a structured enterprise system to supply consumers with merchandise and services banned by criminal law but for which a ready market exists: prostitution, pornography, gambling, and narcotics. second component involves the use of illegitimate means to dominate and control legitimate enterprises. Organized crime groups enter, buy, or control legitimate industries such as construction and trash hauling. However, rather than play by the rules, they use violence and strong-arm tactics to remove rivals, collect money owed, and intimidate people into cooperation.

illegal fishing

Unlicensed and illegal fishing is another billion-dollar green crime. It can take many forms and involve highly different parties, ranging from huge factory ships operating on the high seas that catch thousands of tons of fish on each voyage, to smaller, locally operating ships that confine themselves to national waters. Illegal fishing occurs when these ships sign on to their home nation's rules but then choose to ignore their scope and boundary, or operate in a country's waters without permission or on the high seas without a flag. Because catches are not reported by the fishing vessels, their illegal fishing can have a detrimental effect on species, as government regulators have no idea how many fish are being caught. Stocks become depleted and species endangered; whole species of fish can be wiped out. In addition, illegal fishing techniques, including fishermen using the wrong sized nets or fishing in prohibited areas, can damage fragile marine ecosystems, threatening coral reefs, turtles, and seabirds. In underdeveloped nations, regulators may look the other way because the needs for short-term economic, social, or political gains are given more weight than long-term sustainability. As a result, species of whales, abalone, lobsters, and Patagonian toothfish (known in the United States as Chilean sea bass) have become endangered Industrial fishing is mainly operated through joint ventures between the government and foreign companies from Japan and Spain. The main commercial species are lobster, crabs, gamba (deep-water shrimp), shrimp, crayfish, and squid. Lobster, shrimp, and gamba are the main exports with key markets in other African states, Hong Kong, Japan, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom.

controlling white collar crime

White-collar criminals are often considered nondangerous offenders because they usually are respectable older citizens who have families to support. These "pillars of the community" are not seen in the same light as a teenager who breaks into a drugstore to steal a few dollars. Their public humiliation at being caught is usually deemed punishment enough; a prison sentence seems unnecessarily cruel. The main reason, according to legal expert Stuart Green, is that perception of white-collar crime is clouded by moral ambiguity. Both the public and the justice system have had trouble distinguishing criminal fraud from mere lawful exaggeration, tax evasion from "tax avoidance," insider trading from "savvy investing," obstruction of justice from "zealous advocacy," bribery from "horse trading," and extortion from "hard bargaining." Hence, white-collar criminals are treated more leniently than lower-class offenders. many white-collar criminals avoid prosecution, and those who are prosecuted receive lenient punishment White-collar criminal enforcement typically involves two strategies designed to control organizational deviance: compliance and deterrence

Asian Crime Groups

Yakuza. Japanese criminal group. They are often involved in multinational criminal activities, including human trafficking, gambling, prostitution, and undermining licit businesses. Fuk Ching. Chinese organized criminal group in the United States. They have been involved in smuggling, street violence, and human trafficking. Triads. Underground criminal societies based in Hong Kong. They control secret markets and bus routes and are often involved in money laundering and drug trafficking. Heijin. Taiwanese gangsters who are often executives in large corporations. They are involved in white-collar crimes, such as illegal stock trading and bribery, and sometimes run for public office. Jao Pho. Organized crime group in Thailand. They are often involved in illegal political and business activity. Red Wa. Gangsters from Thailand. They are involved in manufacturing and trafficking methamphetamine.

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)

a law that prohibits U.S. corporations from making illegal payments to public officials of foreign governments to obtain business rights or to enhance their business dealings in those countries which makes it a criminal offense to bribe foreign officials or to make other questionable overseas payments. Violations of the FCPA draw strict penalties for both the defendant company and its officers. Moreover, all fines imposed on corporate officers are paid by them, not absorbed by the company. If a domestic company violates the antibribery provisions of the FCPA, it can be fined up to $1 million. Company officers, employees, or stockholders who are convicted of bribery may have to serve a prison sentence of up to five years and pay a $10,000 fine.

Human Trafficking Organized crime groups

are quite active in human trafficking, the acquisition of people by improper means such as force, fraud, or deception, with the aim of exploiting them in such illegal activities as prostitution, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, or similar practices. Every year, thousands of men, women, and children fall into the hands of traffickers in their own countries and abroad. Almost every country in the world is affected by trafficking, whether as a country of origin, transit, or destination for victims.

Russian Transnational Crime Groups

collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, criminal organizations in Russia and other former Soviet republics such as Ukraine have engaged in a variety of crimes: drugs and arms trafficking, stolen automobiles, trafficking in women and children, and money laundering. No area of the world seems immune, especially not the United States. America is the land of opportunity for unloading criminal goods and laundering dirty money. It is based on economic necessity that was nurtured by the oppressive Soviet regime. A professional criminal class developed in Soviet prisons during the Stalinist period that began in 1924—the era of the gulag. These criminals adopted behaviors, rules, values, and sanctions that bound them together in what was called the thieves' world, led by the elite vory v zakone, criminals who lived according to the "thieves' law." This thieves' world, and particularly the vory, created and maintained the bonds and climate of trust necessary for carrying out organized crime.

Environmental Crimes Strike Force in Los Angeles County

common environmental offenses investigated and prosecuted by the task force include: The illegal transportation, treatment, storage, or disposal of hazardous waste Oil spills Fraudulent certification of automobile smog tests

The Harms Perspective

crime is a social construction that can and should be expanded to include all serious social harms, activities that cause any discomfort, present or future, to individuals. Harms may include physical, financial/economic, emotional or psychological, and cultural safety harm. Using the harms perspective, it would be appropriate to sanction toxic waste dumping or air pollution severely because they cause residual harm that will last many years, poisoning the environment and producing diseases such as cancer. However, in many instances this action is punished civilly, not criminally. Green criminologists, such as Michael Lynch at Florida State University, typically use what is known as the harms perspective when they conceptualize crime and deviance.

False Claims Advertising

crimes committed by corporations that deceive public in order to increase profits from misleading info on product/service It is traditional to show a product in its best light, even if that involves resorting to fantasy. It is not fraudulent to show a delivery service vehicle taking off into outer space or to imply that taking one sip of beer will make people feel they have just jumped into a freezer. However, it is illegal to knowingly and purposely advertise a product as possessing qualities that the manufacturer realizes it does not have, such as the ability to cure the common cold, grow hair, or turn senior citizens into rock stars (though some rock stars are senior citizens these days). The Supreme Court disagreed and found that states may charge fraud when fundraisers make false or misleading representations designed to deceive donors about how their donations will be used. The Court held that it is false and misleading for a solicitor to fool potential donors into believing that a substantial portion of their contributions would fund specific programs or services knowing full well that was not the case. Executives in even the largest corporations sometimes face stockholders' expectations of ever-increasing company profits that seem to demand that sales be increased at any cost. At times executives respond to this challenge by making claims about their products that cannot be justified by actual performance. It is illegal to knowingly and purposely advertise a product as possessing qualities that the manufacturer realizes it does not have, such as the ability to cure the common cold, grow hair.

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

established health care fraud as an independent federal criminal offense, with the basic crime carrying a federal prison term of up to 10 years in addition to significant financial penalties. HIPAA doubles the prison term to up to 20 years should a perpetrator's fraud result in injury to a patient; if the fraud results in a patient's death, the perpetrator can be sentenced to life in federal prison. It is a crime, punishable by up to five years in prison, to provide anything of value, money or otherwise, directly or indirectly, with the intent to induce a referral of a patient or a health care service. Liability attaches to both parties in the transaction—the entity or individual providing the kickbacks and the individual receiving payment of the referral. The law also prohibits physicians and other health care providers from referring beneficiaries in federal health care programs to clinics or other facilities in which the physician or health care provider has a financial interest. Congress also mandated the establishment of a nationwide Coordinated Fraud and Abuse Control Program to coordinate federal, state, and local law enforcement efforts against health care fraud and to include "the coordination and sharing of data" with private health insurers.

citizen groups

have become more active in environmental monitoring and combating green crime, since law enforcement efforts may be stratified by class and race There have also been charges that efforts to control green crime are less than successful. One reason is that law enforcement efforts may be stratified by class and race: authorities seem to be less diligent when victims are poor or minority group members or the crimes take place in minority areas. Therefore, in addition to state and federal environmental agencies, citizen groups have also become active in environmental monitoring and combating green crime. One well-known organization, Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP), was founded in 1969 by a group of 43 volunteers concerned about air quality issues in southwestern Pennsylvania. GASP educated the public on questions of pollution, it has also used the courts to achieve its goal of a cleaner environment. GASP has cooperated in a number of cases with the EPA in bringing about enforcement of air quality standards. In each case the court action resulted in substantial fines and/or remedial actions being imposed on the defendant. potentially effective, citizen-based groups may be skewed by the racial and ethnic makeup of the communities they serve. Communities with fewer economic resources and those with higher concentrations of minority populations receive less official protection and hence a reduced level of environmental justice; these inequities also extend to informal organizations. Equipment to monitor pollution is expensive and not easily available in less well-off areas that actually need it the most.

Securities chiseling

individuals engage in deceptive practices that are prohibited by federal law

Illegal Logging

involves harvesting, processing, and transporting timber or wood products in violation of existing laws and treaties. It is a universal phenomenon, occurring in major timber-producing countries, especially in the third world where enforcement is lax. Illegal logging operations rely on corruption and could not occur without some form of cooperation from government officials responsible for protecting forests, who may take bribes so that criminals can obtain logging permits, avoid detection, and export illegal timber. This results in the loss of crucial resources for developing countries, while damaging their economies, public trust, and institutional structures The situation is serious because illegal logging can have severe environmental and social impact: Illegal logging exhausts forests, destroys wildlife, and damages its habitats. Illegal logging in central Africa is destroying the habitats and threatening the survival of populations of the great apes, including gorillas and chimpanzees. It causes ruinous damage to the forests, including deforestation and forest degradation worldwide. The destruction of forest cover can cause flash floods and landslides that have killed thousands of people. By reducing forest cover, illegal logging impairs the ability of land to absorb carbon emissions. This is especially troublesome because forests are vital to mitigating climate change because they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Deforestation accounts for an estimated 17 percent of global carbon emissions, greater than from all the world's air, road, rail, and shipping traffic combined. Illegal logging costs billions each year in government revenue, impairing the ability of third-world nations to provide needed social services. It creates unsustainable economic devastation in the poorest countries. Vietnam, for example, has lost a third of its forest cover; in nearby Cambodia, illegal logging is at least 10 times the size of the legal harvest. These rates of extraction are clearly unsustainable, destroying valuable sources of employment and export revenues for the future. The substantial revenues from illegal logging fund national and regional conflict. In Cambodia, for several years Khmer Rouge insurgents were sustained primarily by revenue from logging areas under their control Logging violations include taking trees in protected areas such as national parks, going over legally prescribed logging quotas, processing logs without acquiring licenses, and exporting logs without paying export duties. By sidestepping the law, loggers can reap greater profits than those generated through legal methods. The situation is serious because illegal logging can have severe environmental and social impact. According to INTERPOL, illegal logging accounts for 50 to 90 percent of all forestry activities in key producer tropical forests, such as those of the Amazon basin, central Africa, and Southeast Asia, and 15 to 30 percent of all wood traded globally.

Deceptive Pricing

largest U.S. corporations commonly use deceptive pricing schemes when they respond to contract solicitations. Deceptive pricing occurs when contractors provide the government or other corporations with incomplete or misleading information on how much it will actually cost to fulfill the contracts on which they are bidding or use mischarges once the contracts are signed. For example, defense contractors have been prosecuted for charging the government for costs incurred on work they are doing for private firms or shifting the costs on fixed-price contracts to ones in which the government reimburses the contractor for all expenses ("cost-plus" contracts).

deterrence strategies

methods of controlling white-collar crime that rely on the punishment of individual offenders to deter other would-be violators Deterrence strategies involve detecting criminal violations, determining who is responsible, and penalizing the offenders to deter future violations. Deterrence systems are oriented toward apprehending violators and punishing them rather than creating conditions that induce conformity to the law. Deterrence strategies should work—and they have—because white-collar crime by its nature is a rational act whose perpetrators are extremely sensitive to the threat of criminal sanctions. Perceptions of detection and punishment for white-collar crimes appear to be powerful deterrents to future law violations. Although deterrence strategies may prove effective, federal agencies have traditionally been reluctant to throw corporate executives in jail. The government seeks criminal indictments in corporate violations only in "instances of outrageous conduct of undoubted illegality," such as price fixing. government has also been lenient with companies and individuals that cooperate voluntarily after an investigation has begun; leniency is not given as part of a confession or plea arrangement. Those who comply with the leniency policy are charged criminally for the activity reported. Despite years of neglect, there is growing evidence that white-collar crime deterrence strategies have become normative. This get-tough deterrence approach appears to be affecting all classes of white-collar criminals.

Latin American and Mexican Drug Cartels

operate freely in South American nations such as Peru and Columbia. Caribbean nations such as Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti are home to drug and gun smuggling gangs. The money from illicit trade strengthens and enlarges the gangs, enabling them to increase their involvement in intraregional and transnational dealing in order to gain more money. Furthermore, drug trafficking has contributed to a sharp increase in the availability and usage of firearms. while island groups flourish, it is the Mexican drug cartels that are now of greatest concern. These transnational gangs have become large-scale suppliers of narcotics, marijuana, and methamphetamines to the United States, and Mexico has become a drug-producing and transit country. In addition, an estimated 90 percent of cocaine entering the United States transits Mexico. Mexican drug gangs routinely use violence, and fighting for control of the border regions has affected U.S. citizens. More than 100 Americans are now being killed in Mexico each year, and Mexican drug cartel members have threatened to kill U.S. journalists covering drug violence in the border region Mexican drug cartels, or drug trafficking organizations, have existed for quite some time, they have become more powerful since Colombia was able to crack down on the Cali and Medellín cartels in the 1990s. Mexican drug cartels now dominate the wholesale illicit drug market in the United States. Mexican cartels are the leading wholesale launderers of drug money from the United States. Mexican and Colombian trafficking organizations annually smuggle an estimated $25 billion in drug proceeds into Mexico for laundering. the main ones being Gulf, Sinaloa, Knights Templar, and Juárez. Some are dominant in local regions, while the major gangs—Gulf, Sinaloa, Los Zetas—are present throughout all of Mexico. In recent years, new cartels have formed and others have become allies, in a constantly shifting landscape of drug activity.

Defining Green Crime

no single vision to define the concept of green crimes. Three independent views exist: Legalist. According to the legalist perspective, environmental crimes are violations of existing criminal laws designed to protect people, the environment, or both. This definition would include crimes against workers such as occupational health and safety crimes, as well as laws designed to protect nature and the environment (e.g., Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act). Environmental justice. According to the environmental justice view, limiting environmental crimes to actual violations of the criminal law is too narrow. A great deal of environmental damage occurs in third-world nations desperate for funds and willing to give mining and oil companies a free hand to develop resources. These nations have meager regulatory laws and therefore allow businesses wide latitude in environmental contamination that would be forbidden in the United States. In addition, environmental justice advocates believe that corporations themselves have attempted to co-opt or manipulate environmental laws, thereby limiting their scope and reach. Executives fear that the environmental movement will force changes in their production practices and place limits on their growth and corporate power. Some try to co-opt green laws by public relations and advertising campaigns that suggest they are doing everything in their power to respect the environment, thereby reducing the need for government regulation. Criminologists must take a broader view of green crimes than the law allows. Biocentric. According to the biocentric approach, environmental harm is viewed as any human activity that disrupts a biosystem, destroying plant and animal life. This more radical approach would criminalize any intentional or negligent human activity or manipulation that impacts negatively on the earth's natural resources. Environmental harm, according to this view, is much greater than what is defined by law as environmental crimes. As criminologist Rob White points out, this is because some of the most ecologically destructive activities, such as clear felling of old-growth forests, are quite legal. Environmental crimes are typically oriented toward protecting humans and their property and have a limited interest in the interests of animals and plants. Environmental laws protect animal and fish processing plants that treat nature and wildlife simply and mainly as resources for human exploitation. Human beings are the cause of environmental harm and need to be controlled.

To be found guilty of bank fraud

one must knowingly execute or attempt to execute a scheme to fraudulently obtain money or property from a financial institution. Penalties for bank fraud include a maximum fine of $1 million and up to 30 years in prison.

organized and transnational organized crime

ongoing criminal enterprise groups whose ultimate purpose is personal economic gain through illegitimate means. One component involves setting up a structured enterprise system to supply consumers with merchandise and services banned by criminal law but for which a ready market exists: prostitution, pornography, gambling, and narcotics. A second component involves the use of illegitimate means to dominate and control legitimate enterprises. Organized crime groups enter, buy, or control legitimate industries such as construction and trash hauling. Their ability to operate freely may be the result of their buying off corrupt officials and using graft, extortion, intimidation, and murder to maintain their operations. The economic impact alone is staggering: it's estimated that global organized crime reaps illegal profits of around $1 trillion per year

Fraud in the Baby Formula Market

ring leader showed the teen mother how to replicate a Craigslist ad she had been posting to promote the business. It had an elegant logo — a silhouette of a woman with flowing hair holding an infant aloft. "Formula Mom," it read. "Helping Other Moms ... Helps You!" The ad outlined Formula Mom's services: free pickups and cash payments for brands including Gerber, Enfamil and Similac. Dattadeen would swap in her own phone number and a Formula Mom email address that the ring leader suggested she create. There was an invoice template and a price guide with photos of the formulas the ring accepted. She instructed the teen mother not to stray far from the Tampa area and advised her to meet sellers in public places. Later, she even provided business cards. Management fraud is also widespread. The CEO's of Enron, Jeffrey Skilling and the Chairman Kenneth Lay carried out a record fraud with gas company which actually sold little natural gas, but claimed record profits for doing so. Skilling was released in 2018, after over a decade in prison. Many people lost their life savings in the well-known Enron scandal.

Mafia in Decline

the American Mafia has been in decline. One reason: high-profile criminal prosecutions using up-to-date IT methods for surveillance and evidence collection Chicago mob boss Frank Calabrese Sr. was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 for his role in 18 gangland slayings dating back to 1970. His arrest—along with 13 others—meant that the Chicago mob does not have the power and influence it once had in the city. In another high-profile case, James "Whitey" Bulger was arrested and convicted of murder in 2013 after having been on the run for 16 years. Bulger, who once ran Boston's feared Winter Hill Gang, was wanted for his role in 19 murders. Mafia leadership is aging. younger generation of mob leaders has stepped in to take control of the families, and they seem to lack the skill and leadership of the older bosses. younger members who turn informer rather than face prison terms. When Joe Calabrese was on trial, his own son testified against him in court. In addition, active government enforcement policies have halved what the estimated mob membership was 25 years ago, and a number of the highest-ranking leaders have been imprisoned. Traditional organized crime has also been hurt by changing values in U.S. society. European American neighborhoods, which were the locus of Mafia power, have been shrinking as families move to the suburbs. Organized crime groups lost their urban-centered political and social bases of operation. In addition, success has hurt organized crime families: younger family members are better educated than their forebears and are equipped to seek their fortunes through legitimate enterprise. slides: United States mafia has been in decline due to high-profile criminal prosecutions and to aging of bosses

management fraud

the deliberate fraud committed by management that injures investors and creditors through materially misleading information Converting or receiving company assets for personal benefit Management-level fraud is also quite common. Such acts include converting company assets for personal benefit; fraudulently receiving increases in compensation (such as raises or bonuses); fraudulently increasing personal holdings of company stock; retaining one's present position within the company by manipulating accounts; and concealing unacceptable performance from stockholders.

To be guilty of corporate crime

the employee committing the crime must be acting within the scope of his employment and must have actual or apparent authority to engage in the particular act in question. Actual authority occurs when a corporation knowingly gives authority to an employee; apparent authority is satisfied if a third party, such as a customer, reasonably believes the agent has the authority to perform the act in question. Courts have ruled that actual authority may occur even when the illegal behavior is not condoned by the corporation but is nonetheless within the scope of the employee's authority.

Proving tax fraud

the government must find that the taxpayer either underreported his or her income or did not report taxable income. No minimum dollar amount is stated before fraud exists, but the government can take legal action when there is a "substantial underpayment of tax." A second element of tax fraud is "willfulness" on the part of the tax evader. In the major case on this issue, willfulness was defined as a "voluntary, intentional violation of a known legal duty and not the careless disregard for the truth." Finally, to prove tax fraud, the government must show that the taxpayer has purposely attempted to evade or defeat a tax payment. If the offender is guilty of passive neglect, the offense is a misdemeanor. Passive neglect means simply not paying taxes, not reporting income, or not paying taxes when due. On the other hand, affirmative tax evasion, such as keeping double books, making false entries, destroying books or records, concealing assets, or covering up sources of income, constitutes a felony.

Nature and Extent of White Collar Crime

these crimes are not tallied by either the UCR or NCVS. The National White Collar Crime Center's most recent national survey of more than 2,500 adults taps into individual experiences with mortgage fraud, credit card fraud, identity theft, unnecessary home or auto repairs, price misrepresentation, and losses due to false stockbroker information, fraudulent business ventures, and Internet scams. The study gives a picture of how widespread white-collar crime is and how many citizens are affected by enterprise crimes: Twenty-four percent of households and 17 percent of individuals reported experiencing at least one form of white-collar crime within the previous year. White-collar crimes happened at both household and individual levels, most often as a result of credit card fraud, price misrepresentation, and unnecessary repairs. More than half (55 percent) of the households surveyed reported at least one external recipient or agency (e.g., credit card company, business or person involved, law enforcement, consumer protection agency, personal attorney). Only about 12 percent of the crimes were reported to law enforcement or some other crime control agency. The general public views white-collar crimes seriously, considering them more damaging than traditional crimes. estimates of the annual cost of white-collar crime are as high as $660 billion per year, losses that far outstrip the cost of any other type of crime. many victims (70 percent) are reluctant to report their crime to police, believing that nothing can be done and that getting further involved is pointless can cause significant economic, social, and personal damage. White-collar crime also destroys confidence, saps the integrity of commercial life, and has the potential for devastating destruction. ndividuals acting alone and within the context of a business structure. The victims of white-collar crime can be the general public, the organization that employs the offender, or a competing organization.

Eastern European Gangs

trace their origins to countries spanning the Baltics, the Balkans, central/eastern Europe, Russia, the Caucasus, and central Asia. Albanian organized crime activities in the United States include gambling, money laundering, drug trafficking, human smuggling, extortion, violent witness intimidation, robbery, attempted murder, and murder they work with other ethnic groups when perpetrating crimes. Trading in illegal arms, narcotics, pornography, and prostitution, they operate a multibillion-dollar transnational crime cartel. Balkan organized crime groups have recently expanded into more sophisticated crimes, including real estate fraud.

Origins of Organized Crime

traced as far back as the 1600s when London was terrorized by organized gangs that called themselves Hectors, Bugles, Dead Boys, and other colorful names. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, English gang members wore distinctive belts and pins marked with serpents, animals, stars, and the like. The first mention of youth gangs in America occurred in the late 1780s, when prison reformers noted the presence of gangs of young people hanging out on Philadelphia's street corners. By the 1820s, New York's Bowery and Five Points districts, Boston's North End and Fort Hill, and the outlying Southwark and Moyamensing sections of Philadelphia were the locales of youth gangs with colorful names like the Roach Guards, Chichesters, the Plug Uglies, and the Dead Rabbits.

White collar Swindlers

use their position in the marketplace for illegal gains fraud is a common-law crime in which someone uses trickery and deceit to separate a mark from his money. A common-law swindle occurs when the con artist tells people she just inherited a Picasso from her deceased aunt and then sells it to an unsuspecting purchaser who later discovers it to be a forgery. In contrast, white-collar swindles involve a person using his or her institutional or business position to commit fraud and fleece victims over an extended period of time. Swindlers are common in the internet age. Why more common in the digital age. Swindlers want to seem larger than life, and the internet makes that easier. Take the case of Sir Robert Stanford, whose international jet-setting brought the attention of American authorities. His promises of lucrative returns on relatively safe certificates of deposit were often more than twice the going rate offered by mainstream banks. Stanford's investment opportunities sounded too good to be true, and unfortunately for investors, they were. Instead of the safe investments being promised, Stanford secretly used the money in very risky long-term real estate and private equity investments; $2 billion was actually lent to Stanford himself. Antiguan auditors did not examine the bank's portfolio or verify its assets because (according to witnesses) they had received bribes to cover up Stanford's scheme and misinform U.S. regulatory commissions. Stanford held these facts from investors, who were told that their money was totally safe thanks to monitoring by a team of more than 20 analysts and yearly audits by Antiguan bank regulators. Stanford was, in the 1990s, one of worlds richest men, worth estimated 2.2 Billion. Before being seized by the government, Stanford's bank misappropriated $8.5 billion in assets belonging to 30,000 clients in 131 countries. Stanford was convicted of fraud in 2012 and is currently serving a 110-year prison sentence. He is eligible for release in 2105. Sir Robert's clothes will be out of fashion by then. Others make off with their profits to a country without any extradition treaty with the USA. White-collar swindles such as the ones created by Stanford, involve a person using his or her institutional or business position to commit fraud and fleece victims over an extended period of time. It would be common-law fraud to sell a forged autograph of Peyton Manning or Tom Brady to someone you just met at a poker game. In contrast, someone who sets up an ongoing sports memorabilia business, and only delivers fraudulent items would be a white collar criminal. One of the most wanted fugitives was Robert Vesco, who was one of the world's richest men who ended living his life in Cuba.

Corporate crime

white-collar crime involves situations in which powerful institutions or their representatives willfully violate the laws that restrain these institutions from doing social harm or require them to do social good—also referred to as organizational crime. Interest in corporate crime first emerged in the early 1900s, when a group of writers, known as muckrakers, targeted the monopolistic business practices of John D. Rockefeller and other corporate business leaders. In a 1907 article, sociologist Edward Alsworth Ross described the "criminaloid": a business leader who while enjoying immunity from the law victimized an unsuspecting public Corporate crimes are socially injurious acts committed by people who control companies to further their business interests. The target of their crimes can be the general public, the environment, or even company workers. What makes these crimes unique is that the perpetrator is a legal fiction—a corporation—and not an individual. In reality, it is company employees or owners who commit corporate crimes and who ultimately benefit through career advancement or greater profits. types: Illegal Restraint of Trade and Price Fixing • Deceptive Pricing • False Claims Advertising • Worker Safety Violations