This book was developed for the use of those who investigate white collar crime and related abuses, and to assist those who supervise and must interact with investigators in this field. It was not addressed to any specialized audience within these groups, but rather to meet general interests in white collar crime investigation which cut across such specialized lines.
The world of white collar crime enforcement is a broad one, transcending lines of geography, organizations, and subject matter jurisdiction. On the federal level there are widespread white collar crime investigative efforts which cut across subject matter lines (as in the U.S. Department of Justice and its Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service), and efforts which are far more specialized, such as are to be found in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and in every department and agency with purchasing, program or revenue responsibilities such as the Department of Defense, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Internal Revenue Service. The work of each of these also results in civil regulatory, or administrative cases, in the same way as outcomes of investigations by the Federal Trade Commission.
On the state government level investigators are similarly active in state police agencies, offices of attorneys general, state revenue departments, state bureaus of investigation, and state regulatory agencies, enforcing criminal and civil laws dealing with white collar crime and related abuses. These agencies deal with such matters as consumer fraud, investor protection, environmental protection, public corruption, regulatory violations, government procurement, and organized crime.
On county and municipal levels, police, sheriffs’ offices, local revenue departments, consumer protection offices, local license departments, prosecutors’ offices, departments of weights and measures, all these and many more which operate in great numbers of organizational frameworks, deal with all of the variations of white collar crimes and related abuses.
Private organizations, for public service reasons or in support of their own economic interests, more and more are to be found investigating white collar crime and related abuses in order to protect the internal integrity of their member operations, to deter white collar crime, and as a basis for supporting civil remedies or referring cases to public agencies which have criminal investigative and prosecutorial jurisdiction.
It is obvious that each of these types of agencies, organizations, and governmental units can use its own specialized, detailed book to guide its investigators and to assist those who supervise or cooperate with them. Some may, for example, have special powers such as subpoena power or the right to inspect the books and records of regulated entities or licensees; most would not. Many such agencies and organizations have prepared their own manuals which address their own problems in great detail. This Book does not purport to fill such specialized needs. Rather it explores common problems in organizing and operating white collar crime investigative units, in investigating white collar crimes and related abuses, and in making sure that the products of investigation are most likely to be used appropriately by prosecutors and litigating attorneys who ultimately determine whether a case will go forward and how it will be presented. Hopefully the approach adopted in this book will fill two key needs: (1) to generally orient new organizations as to what must be done to successfully set up and operate an organization which investigates white collar crime; and (2) to provide an inventory of tactics, and techniques both for new organizations and for already established investigative organizations, which will help them to enhance the comprehensiveness of their operations, and to improve them.
This book has been structured to achieve its purpose, as described above, by being usable in two ways: first, as a narrative description which can be read in its entirety to develop a total picture of white collar crime investigative issues and methods; and second, as a reference or resource document from which portions can be selectively taken to answer specific questions or provide guidance as to particular problems. To make it usable in these two distinct ways, some issues were necessarily discussed in more than one portion of the book, although from different perspectives.
The organization of this book goes from the general to the specific. First it deals with the basic issue of what white collar crime is, why it is a proper area for law enforcement efforts, and what its impact is on individuals, business, and the general community. As part of this discussion, white collar crime elements, characteristics, offender motivations, relationships to other crime areas, and remedies are discussed at some length, for the light they shed on both the justifications for and proper methods of responding to these crimes and the abuses related to them. From there the book goes on to discuss the kinds of organizations and organizational activities which have been found to be required to effectively deal with white collar crime, and factors such as the form of organizational units, interfaces of unit activity within agencies and externally, personnel selection, and the role of intelligence in a white collar crime enforcement effort.
Having thus set the stage for action, the elements of white collar crime are then analyzed for the purpose of showing how the investigator can identify and target the kinds of information and evidence he will need in order to construct his case. Once this is done it becomes relevant to go into detail as to how the investigator should proceed to obtain this information and evidence, for example by searches for documentation, finding and interviewing victims and witnesses, and interrogation of suspects. Also included in this section of the Book is a discussion of computers, both as a tool used by the white collar criminal in committing his crimes and as an investigative resource for use by the investigator to unravel and prove a case.
The book provides a discussion regarding evaluation of white collar crime efforts, not merely as a basis for judging success or failure but, more importantly, as an aid to setting goals and priorities, as a source of information for guiding and steering agency or unit operations, and as a basis for resource allocation and budget justification.
From this description of the structure of the book it should be obvious that it is not an encyclopedia designed to answer all questions or convey all available knowledge in the field but rather one resource to assist the reader to master the issues and techniques which are important to white collar crime investigation. Individual agencies should prepare their own manuals, addressing their own subject matter and jurisdictional issues, as additions to or incorporating materials in this book. With increasing attention to white collar crime in the media and in the community at large, we should anticipate that this will be only the first of a series of manuals, training aids, and research products to support this vital law enforcement effort.
