White Collar Crimes: Their Many Faces

White Collar Crimes, like stock fraud or insider trading, when they break out, are scandalous; and as a matter of consequence, they cause investors to lose faith in the stock market, directly affecting the economy of nations. An independent incident of embezzlement costs, on an average. 1.00.000 USD; meanwhile, crimes like convenience store robberies or gas station robberies, which cost between 712 USD and 1.007 USD, according to data collected in the United States from 'public sources' like court records, prosecutorial press releases, media accounts, vital records. government & regulatory filings and other public information from active cases in the latter half of 2008. White Collar Crimes differ from conventional crimes in their modus perandi, magnitude and implications. Although, white collar crimes do no leave behind a victim in the traditional sense, considering White Collar Crime a victim less crime is a common blunder. Shrouded behind this veil is the reality; White Collar Crimes have serious implications on the society, economy and politics on a global scale, as these crimes cost governments, civilians, major corporations and small businesses more than 10 trillion dollar worldwide annually. Edwin H. Sutherland, a renowned sociologist, is the pioneer of the study of white collar crimes. in 1939, he defined 'white collar crime' as a crime committed by a person of respectability and high school status in the course of occupation. The most accepted definition of white collar crime suggests that white collar crime is a crime committed by business and industry professionals, non-violent in nature, with sole purpose of achieving financial gain, business advantage for their corporation, or financial gain for investors. However, the contemporary definition of White collar Crimes must also address the crimes committed for personal gain or to secure an advantage in an industry in which alleged criminals are not working at the time of the commission of the offence. The aspect of meticulous planning, calculated actions and strategic execution of the planned crime, usually done by educationally sound and technologically literate crowd, has also been left unaddressed by the contemporary definition of White Collar Crimes. While this facet White Collar Crimes concentrate on the level of expertise required pulling off such a crime, it does not in any way imply that only the socially respected and elite. i.e., a certain privileged class can do so. White Collar Crimes are a class of crimes, under whose umbrella, various concepts fall. Be it insider trading – Rajat Gupta’s Case, Securities fraud like ponzi scheme, Anti-trust violations like that of the technology giant Apple, they are all white collar crimes that have made a ripple effect whose detrimental consequences are not confines to the organisations in question alone. The collapse of the Lehman Brothers is testimony to the far reaching consequences of  White Collar Crimes, resulting in the collapse of economies, disrupting the nature of international trade and hampering the economic progress of many societies. The focus in the collapse of Lehman Brothers is on the crime of fraud, resulting in the bankruptcy of the fourth largest investment bank in the United States of America, and the subsequent recession that has come to be known as The Great Recession of 2008. While the factors leading to the Great Recession include the commission of White collar Crimes in the largest investment banks of the U.S., they are not limited to the same.