5 High Profile Fraud Charges

Guest Post provided by The Law Offices of Kush Arora.

Fraud is a word that is often used to casually describe a person that is dishonest. In a legal sense, fraud is actually a criminal charge that is made up of five parts. For example, if the government charges a person with fraud, they must be able to prove all the elements of the charge in order to get a conviction. What are these five elements?

In order to prove fraud, prosecutors must be able to show that the person charged has made a statement concerning an important fact that is false or misleading, and that they knowingly made this statement even though they knew it to be false or misleading, and that they were intentionally attempting to deceive. In addition, prosecutors must be able to show that the party that was defrauded had reason to believe the defendant’s false statements were true, and of course, there must be damages, or a loss, involved.

Fraud in the News

The most high-profile charge of fraud in recent history is the Bernie Madoff case. In 2009, Bernie Madoff, one of the world’s best known investment-fund operators was charged with defrauding thousands of people out of billions of dollars by operating a Ponzi-Scheme that collapsed under the weight of the 2008 financial crisis. His lawyer faced an unsuccessful, uphill battle in the face of overwhelming evidence.

An equally disturbing case, but not quite as well-known, is the case of Allen Stanford. Mr. Stanford was found guilty of fraud in 2012 and sentenced to 110 years in prison. He owned and operated a bank on foreign soil, but was found to have defrauded his customers out of billions of dollars in another Ponzi-style scheme that collapsed. A similar case occurred in the UK when Nick Leeson’s fraudulent behavior led to the destruction of the oldest investment bank in that country.

The word fraud is often synonymous with the name, “ Enron.” Enron was an energy company that managed to fool investors into continuing to invest with their company through tricky accounting maneuvers that made them appear to be profitable even when they were in dire trouble. This kind of fraud requires the cooperation of many. To make matters worse, the heat from the SEC investigation left many investors holding an empty bag while greedy executives cashed out. Kenneth Lay was the most high-profile name from that case. He was charged with fraud in 2004, but died of a heart attack before being tried.

In 2012, Tour-de-France champion cyclist Floyd Landis pled guilty to defrauding charitable contributors by lying about his use of performance-enhancing drugs, but his attorney was able to secure a specialized plea that softened his punishment.

Fraud Attorney

There are fraud schemes in every area of life where money is exchanged. Legal representation is vital when facing a fraud charge because the burden on the government to establish the five elements can be made more difficult by a skilled attorney. High-profile fraud charges make up a very small percentage of overall fraud cases in the world.

The information provided was brought to you by the The Law Office of Kush Arora and their experienced fraud attorneys.