White collar crime is a blanket term that refers to crimes involving fraud or deceit. Such crimes can range anywhere from tax and insurance fraud to racketeering and public corruption. Some of the areas that comprise white collar crime follow:
- Tax fraud — The deliberate evasion of tax law, including failure to file taxes or willfully omitting income
- Racketeering — Earning profit from legitimate business through illegitimate means
- Business fraud — Deceitful business practices including employee theft and embezzlement
- Securities fraud — The misrepresentation or distortion of stock information for profit
- Insurance fraud — Insurance fraud involves either the insured making false claims or the insurer selling unlicensed insurance
- Money laundering — Transferring illicitly obtained funds through legitimate channels in an effort to disguise the original source
- Bank fraud — Illegally obtaining property and assets held by a financial institution
- Public and official corruption — Using one’s position of power to transfer funds and other assets for personal profit
- Mortgage fraud — Misrepresenting the terms of a mortgage in order to increase the size of a loan
