White Collar Crime
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Economic crime takes place in all segments of business. It was once thought that economic crime only occurred in large financial centers. This could not be further from the truth. Economic crime can be as simple as an employee “tapping the till” to a complex computer fraud. No matter the location, urban or rural, manufacturing or agricultural, sophisticated criminals continually develop schemes to steal from the un-alert.
In years past, such complex crimes overwhelmed local law enforcement. The mass of paper, bookkeeping records, computer output and the lack of understanding about legal concepts often placed significant road blocks to detection, investigation and eventual prosecution. In response to the growth of this type of crime and appreciating its difficulties, the Office of the District Attorney developed a White Collar Crime Unit in 1996, dedicated to the prosecution of economic crime.
The White Collar Crime Unit has undertaken numerous cases of embezzlement, conflict of interest, political, and commercial crimes.
This unit has the expertise and ability to take a case from filing through sentencing. Experienced and trained prosecutors are assigned to this unit. These cases often take weeks just to read, then the process of determining a course of action begins. The Deputy District Attorneys and the investigators assigned to these cases are specialized and dedicated to prosecuting white collar crime.
The White Collar Crime Unit consists of three prosecutors and one supervising attorney. Operating primarily out of our Visalia Office, the White Collar Crime Unit is part of a larger division, the Civil and Financial Crimes Division. This Division is responsible for the prosecution of cases which come within our White Collar Crime, Workers’ Compensation, Auto Insurance Fraud, Auto Theft, Rural Crime, Welfare Fraud and Consumer Fraud programs. This Division also contains the Public Administrator position for our office.
While this Division operates primarily out of our Visalia Office, it handles cases throughout the entire county. This division utilizes a vertical prosecution team approach in the handling of cases which means that the same team member works on the case from beginning to end.
