White-collar, corporate, and organized crime

Question 1

What is white-collar crime?

Answer 1

a violation of the law committed by a person or group of persons in the course of an otherwise respected and legitimate occupation or business

Question 2

What are occupational crimes? Give three examples

Answer 2

occupational crimes = crimes committed by individuals for themselves in the course of rendering a service

examples:
- medicare fraud
- misuses of client funds by lawyers and brokers
- substitution of inferior goods

Question 3

What is insider trading?

Answer 3

the use of material, non-public, financial info to obtain an unfair advantage in trading securities

Question 4

What is stock manipulation? Give an example of a company that did this and how they did it

Answer 4

stock manipulation = making misleading or even false statements to clients to give the impression that the price of the stock is about to rise and thus create an artificial demand for it

example = Bre-Ex Minerals Ltd: claimed to found a gold deposit that’d make millions of dollars for people

Question 5

What happens when a bankruptcy petition is filed?

Answer 5

the person or corporation’s property and financial obligations are disposed of

Question 6

What is bankruptcy fraud? Give an example

Answer 6

bankruptcy fraud = any scam designed to take advantage of loopholes in the bankruptcy laws

e.g. taking any money that the company might have and spending it, then claiming bankruptcy

Question 7

Give some examples of fraud that involves the government

Answer 7

• collusion in bidding (purposely inflating the contract)
• payoffs and kickbacks to government officials (e.g. travel accounts)
• the hiring of friends (e.g. spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on their buddies to do “work” and just give their support to the gov)

Question 8

Give some examples of consumer fraud

Answer 8

• home improvement fraud
• deceptive advertising
• telemarketing fraud
• business opportunity fraud

Question 9

what is insurance fraud? give an example

Answer 9

insurance fraud = most often accomplished by the filing of false claims for life, fire, marine or casualty insurance

e.g. body repair shops that change more to consumers that have insurance than those without

Question 10

what is tax fraud?

Answer 10

an attempt to evade or defeat a tax, non-payments of a tax or willful filing of a fraudulent tax return

Question 11

What is the underground economy, where does it occur?

Answer 11

underground economy = cash economy

more likely to occur with blue-collar jobs

Question 12

what is bribery, corruption, and political fraud?

Answer 12

the objective of such offences vary – favours, special privileges, services, business

Question 13

What are corporate crimes? what does this include?

Answer 13

crimes committed by at least one employee of a corporation with the aim of furthering the interests of the corporations

includes illegal and unsafe working conditions

Question 14

how does organizational structure/social organization of work explain corporate crime?

Answer 14

• positions of power carry freedom from control
• diffusion of responsibility due to pyramid structure
• “juristic person”: law treats corporations as people ( formally liable to the same laws as natural persons)
• “executive disengagement” - lower-level employees assume executives are best left uniformed; assumes execs cannot be legally expected to have complete control over their individual staff

Question 15

how can corporate culture explain corporate crime?

Answer 15

• deviant and criminal behaviours may be encouraged
• norms promoting “win at all costs”
• “criminogenic market structure”: an economic market that’s structured in such a way that it tends to produce criminal behaviour

Question 16

how can capitalism explain corporate crime?

Answer 16

• competitive
• tends to promote greed, selfishness and crime

Question 17

What are the various costs of corporate crime?

Answer 17

• costs to consumers: price-fixing; unsafe products
• costs to employees: unsafe work conditions
• costs to the environment: immediate and long-lasting

Question 18

Describe how the Ford Pinto case demonstrates costs to the consumer

Answer 18

An accident would cause the car to ignite because of the gas tank placement

they did a cost-benefit analyses and found that it was cheaper to settle civil lawsuits rather than recall all the vehicles to fix them

Question 19

What are the federal efforts in Canada to deter corporate crime?

Answer 19

• canadian environmental protection act (CEPA): regulates toxic substances, the import of substances, and hazardous waste
• canadian environmental assessment act: applies to federal and private projects that involve federal government funds or lands
• canadian criminal code: allows for prosecution of organizations for “egregious environmental violations”
• criminal enforcement: rarely used; max fine = $10 mil/day; possible imprisonment
• civil actions: directors and officers of corporations can be held personally liable
• imprisonment: for causing or permitting damage to the environment regardless of whether their corporation has been prosecuted or convicted

Question 20

give the broad definition of organized crime groups

Answer 20

a relatively structured hierarchical system, the goal of which is to provide consumers with goods for which there is a demand – includes drugs, weapons, prostitution, some kinds of pornography, and gambling

Question 21

what are some general characteristics of organized crime groups?

Answer 21

• conspiratorial activity
• economic gain
• connection to legitimate activities (e.g. money laundering)
• predatory (use of violence between and within groups)

Question 22

Why does organized crime exist?

Answer 22

• blocked opportunities
• demand for illicit goods

Question 23

Describe the characteristics of the Italian-based mafia

Answer 23

• reliance on ethnicity, family loyalty, and a code of secrecy
• structured like a Sicilian family

Question 24

Describe the characteristics of asian-based crime groups

Answer 24

• cell system (individuals and small groups can act independently within the group)
• marijuana cultivation and exportation is common

Question 25

Describe the characteristics of eastern-european organized crime groups

Answer 25

• influences by change from communist to capitalist economy
• crimes range from street-level crime to fraud that requires sophisticated technological expertise

Question 26

Describe the characteristics of Indigenous crime groups

Answer 26

• well-established in the prison population
• prison link used for recruitment and drug distribution
• linked to overrepresentation of Indigenous people in the CJS

Question 27

Describe the characteristics of outlaw motorcycle gangs

Answer 27

• tightly knit, highly structures, violently control territory
• e.g. Hells Angels

Question 28

What is “dirty money”?

Answer 28

profits made through organized crime

Question 29

what is money laudering?

Answer 29

aimed at making illegally obtained funds seem legitimate, so that they can be sent or invested in the legitimate economy without arousing suspicion

Question 30

What are some federal attempts to control organized crime?

Answer 30

• forfeit of proceeds of crime: criminal code provides the power to seize proceeds of crime, which can include anything purchased with those proceeds
• S. 345 of the criminal code: make it an offence to possess anything derived from an indictable offence
• Bill C-24: provided $200 mil over 5 years to give police new measures to fight organized crime

Question 31

Why are international efforts being made to control organized crime?

Answer 31

• with globalization, organized crime is more efficient –> cracking down on these groups in highly challenging
• governments are corrupt and some of these groups are taking over the government