If you work in the world of business, you need to know all about the most common kinds of financial crimes. When you know about them, you can ensure that you never become either a victim or a perpetrator. Here are seven of the most common financial crimes in the business world.
- Mortgage Fraud
Mortgage fraud is something that happens in the real estate industry from time to time. And it can have a devastating impact on people’s lives. A company that does this can extract money from the transaction to increase profits. It’s illegal and can lead to real estate companies getting shut down. This can affect ordinary homebuyers, but it can also affect companies that rent commercial properties.
- Forgery
Forgery is when a company is involved in faking documents. It could be as simple as faking signatures to make it appear that they have authorisation for something when they don’t. The reasons for doing this are varied. But it usually links back to money and companies wanting to get their hands on more of it. It can be used to facilitate other kinds of fraud too.
- Tax Evasion
When a company does not pay the amount of money in taxes that it’s obliged to, it’s a crime. It’s a serious crime, and many companies have been exposed as tax evaders in recent times. It is very difficult to distinguish between aggressive avoidance and evasion though. For example, there are some very dodgy schemes that are frowned upon but are technically legal.
- Money Laundering
Money laundering happens when illegal money is channelled into legitimate companies. This is done so that the money can enter circulation naturally and appear legal and legitimate. This money has often been used for illegal activities such as selling drugs. On other occasions, it’s simply used as a way to avoid paying tax on some money.
- Fraud
Fraud can encompass many different kinds of activity. At its core, fraud refers to a company or individual trying to extract money from elsewhere through illegal means. Fraudulent activity is commonly conducted via things like insurance policies. Sometimes, people take advantage of policies illegally to trigger a payout from the insurance company. But that’s just one example of fraud.
- Bribery
Bribery is one of the most common and widespread forms of financial crime in the business world. Bribes are used to get an unfair advantage over the competition, and it’s a key sign of corruption. It occasionally happens that honest payments are mistaken as bribes though. The best criminal defense attorney you can find if you think you’ve been wrongly accused. There is a fine line between the two and a grey area.
- Racketeering
Racketeering is when organised groups operate an illegal business. These businesses can take many different forms. Some of them are used to simply embezzle funds. And others focus on other particular illegal activities, such as drug and trafficking offence. These organisations obviously have to be kept covert, so they can be difficult for the authorities to uncover them and take action.
