What To Do When Accused Of A White Collar Crime In Colorado
White collar crimes are non-violent offenses revolving around finances, businesses, or corporate activities. Examples are tax evasion, fraud, embezzlement, forgery, and blackmail. In Colorado, the consequences of such a criminal conviction can quickly escalate, involving as much as $1 million in fines and 24 years of imprisonment. A white collar crime may fall under state or federal jurisdiction.
With these severe penalties, it can be terrifying to face a white-collar criminal charge. It is absolutely crucial to get a competent lawyer as soon as you can.
Why It’s Important To Lawyer Up ASAP
By the time a case is brought, law enforcement and the prosecution have already spent a long time building an airtight case. They typically take years conducting an extensive investigation. When you are accused of a white collar crime, you can expect that they already have an abundance of information that can be used to prosecute you.
Further, it is very easy to incriminate yourself in a white collar criminal case. Some people make inadvertent statements or unknowingly associate themselves with implicated individuals. Others handle documents in a way that could be taken as tampering with evidence.
As soon as you learn that you are being investigated for or accused of a white collar crime, enlist a defense attorney. Even if you believe that you have been falsely accused, you still need to protect yourself. Your lawyer should safeguard you from self-incrimination while you cooperate with investigating authorities. Moreover, an experienced attorney can produce a strong defense against the case that is already mounting against you.
Potential Defenses Against A White-Collar Charge
A person cannot be convicted of a white collar crime unless the prosecution proves that the accused committed it intentionally. This lack of intent is a widely used defense in a white-collar case. Your lawyer may assert, for example, that you wrote a check sincerely thinking that you had enough funds to cover it. Or perhaps you were simply doing your tasks at your workplace without knowing they were leading to a crime.
Another common defense is entrapment, which asserts that you did not intend to commit the crime but law enforcers encouraged you or led you on to do it. For instance, you may have been misled by an undercover investigator or lured into a situation you did not intend to be involved in.
Other white collar defenses include:
- Insufficient evidence against you
- Duress, or being forced by another party to commit the crime
- Identity theft, such as if your name was used without your knowledge to conduct unlawful transactions
- Intoxication
- Incapacity
- Insanity
Choose Your Lawyer Wisely
Experience and a successful track record are important qualities of a white-collar criminal defense attorney. Your lawyer should have first-hand experience in how law enforcers investigate these crimes and how prosecutors put together their cases. You also want your lawyer to have won cases like yours in the past. A white collar case is complex and challenging – you don’t want to waste your time and money with an attorney who has not demonstrated their competence in this field.
In Colorado, consult with us at Goldman Law. We have decades of combined experience in state and federal laws, and we aggressively work to minimize damage for our clients as much as possible. Talk to us about your white collar criminal accusation today.
