White collar crimes range from securities and commodities fraud to pyramid schemes and health care fraud. Financial criminals account millions of dollars across multiple jurisdictions.
The Vast Expanse of White Collar Crime
While white collar crimes come in different styles and amounts of monies, one thing is common. Financial criminal hide their illegal offenses through using multiple bank accounts and complex financial maneuvering. Often, their schemes are difficult to track. In the past, investigating agents have used Excel spreadsheets to keep track of the moves by white collar criminals and to prosecute. It was a tough process to make complicated financial data understandable to jurors. Plus, proving financial fraud can take years for human clerks to input the data.
New Technology Helps Fight and Track Crime
New technology is helping financial crime fighters identify and track fiscal anomalies along with prosecuting white collar crimes. Gone are the days with financial scammers being able to elude justice. Investigators are now using powerful databases, big data and precise analytic tools to identify and expose financial crimes. All around, new technology is making it easier to follow the money trail. For example, former financial investigator with the Department of Justice Pete Platt who now investigates bank fraud uses AIR Comprehensive Financial Investigation Solution (CFIS) to identify bank fraud. This software processes electronic documents and records the data in a database. It then does a data analysis and generates graphic visualizations of money transactional patterns. It follows and traces the flow of financial funds. As an investigator, he can see revealing patterns of things like money laundering. And with visual graphs, it makes it easy for a jury to follow a white collar criminal’s clandestine moves. Without a doubt, technology is helping law enforcement stay one step ahead of the crooks.
Enterprises in many industries like health insurance, banking and automotive are using SAS software to identify and prosecute fraud. In the health insurance industry, this software uses analytical tools and a variety of data sources to determine eligibility in Medicaid. It detects improper payments and manages investigation workflows. For the banking industry, the SAS software enhances fraud detection and provides for an effective investigation with consolidated activity monitoring. In Durham, NC, used software analytics to shut down and prosecute an organized crime group from defrauding insurance companies by generating several claims for the same accident.
Recent White Collar Crime Data
In 2015, 73 people in Miami were charged in financial crimes involving approximately $263 million in false billings for mental health services, home health care and pharmacy meds. According to FBI Director James B. Comey, “The investigations leveraged technology to collect and analyze data. We followed the money and found criminals who were attracted to doctors’ offices, clinics, hospitals and nursing homes in search of what they viewed as an ATM.”
Without a doubt, new technology is arresting white collar crimes. Financial criminals can’t run or hide. It’s a new era of forensic financial crime investigation.
To learn more about white collar crimes in Florida or criminal defense, contact Destin Florida defense attorney John F. Greene. With 30 years of experience working with defendants in both state and federal courts Attorney Greene will review the facts of your case and, if there is a remedy for your legal issue, he will find it.
The law office of John F. Greene is located in the City of Destin and serves all those along the Emerald Coast, specifically the Destin, Crestview, DeFuniak Springs, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville and Panama City Beach. Contact John online or call 850-424-6833 to schedule a consultation.
