What a prosecutor needs to prove when a person is charged with a white collar crime will depend on the actual charge against somebody.
For example, the elements of embezzlement are different than the elements the government prosecutor needs to prove in a perjury case. Money laundering is different than a conspiracy case. Depending on what the person is charged with, that will change what the prosecutor is required to prove. Regardless of what charges and elements are involved in the case, consulting an Alexandria white collar lawyer is an important step in building a defense for Alexandria white collar criminal charges.
Every case is different. If a prosecutor is looking at a case and sees that there might be a flaw in the case, even though it might still be enough evidence to find the defendant guilty, the prosecutor may be willing to consider a reduced charge in the form of a plea deal. Certainly, in cases where a person is willing to help out the prosecution and police officers in investigating somebody else during an act of investigation, especially where the white collar crime that has been charged is part of a larger scheme or a larger network of individuals committing crimes, then somebody who is willing to inform or who is willing to speak to the prosecutors about what he or she knows might have the case reduced as a result.
It is always going to depend on the circumstances of the case and what information an individual has to offer to the police. This is also something that an attorney should still do for the client because an individual does not want to talk to anyone about his or her activities unless there is a firm deal in place—otherwise an individual could potentially be exposing themselves to more liability.
The initial steps that an attorney will take when preparing a defense for white collar crimes are going to differ depending on the crime. A white collar attorney will need to find out all the information he or she possibly can about the circumstances of the crime being alleged.
For example, for individuals who are charged with something like perjury, the white collar criminal defense attorney would be looking for not only the statement that the person made that is being considered perjury, but what evidence supports that these statements are perjuries, what the prosecution will try to say in presenting the case, and how they are going to say it. Depending on the charge, that will change for each case. The attorney will look at the charge and find out what the prosecution will attempt to present on each of the elements of that charge.
The evidence that a white collar attorney will compile in building a defense to white collar charges will really depend on the charge. If it is being alleged that the person was involved in a sophisticated embezzlement scheme from an employer, an Alexandria white collar attorney will look at financial documents, bank account information, and other documents that the attorney needs to prove the evidence that the prosecutor is bringing in. Proving that no money ever touched the hands of the client is a way to help combat any kind of insinuation by the government that the client is receiving funds.
It is important to hire an Alexandria white collar attorney to prepare an individual’s defense instead of just a general criminal lawyer, because white collar crimes are much more complicated than regular criminal offenses. White collar attorneys require knowledge, background, and experiences to understand how financial information and money is moved and handled to build an adequate defense for an individual’s case.
Often, white collar criminal defense requires knowledge of contract law, of savvy business sense, of stock trading, and of handling of money in trust accounts. This information is very specialized and a white collar criminal defense attorney should have a background in this information.