Histories most infamous white-collar crimes

On Behalf of | Jul 4, 2017 | White Collar Crimes

White-collar crimes in Florida are usually non-violent and involve money or business dealings. While those committing these crimes do not usually physically hurt anyone, the damage done to financial circumstances can be devastating. There are several high profile white-collar crimes in the United States. These crimes helped to bring to light the severity of this type of criminal activity.

According to The Richest, the most notorious white-collar crime occurred with a company called Enron. This company was in the energy industry. It was found the company was falsifying income and debt, along with using improper accounting practices to inflate its value and defraud investors. Investors and shareholders went bankrupt, while executives got away with millions of dollars. Most employees involved were convicted and went to prison, but the owner of the company died before he could serve his sentence.

Charles Ponzi is another notorious white-collar criminal. He created the Ponzi scheme, which is where investors invest in a purchase and the money paid to those investors as returns came from a second group of investors. In essence, in this type of scheme, no real money is being made by investors. It is simply being recycled, using money from one investor group to pay another, but Ponzi was pocketing the real earnings. He ended up in prison for his crimes.  

The Huffington Post explains about a third well-known conviction of a white-collar criminal, John Rogas. He was the CEO of Adelphia Communications, which was a top cable company. He stole money from the investors and the company ended up going bankrupt. He served time in prison but was released due to health issues.

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