White-collar crime is a term many of us have heard of but may not completely understanding. White-collar crime is defined as the commision of crime by someone of high authority, such as government official or business professional, for monetary gain. Some of the most famous white-collar criminals include Charles Ponzi, Kenneth Lay, and John Rigas. The white-collar criminal I want to focus on today is Charles Ponzi the pioneer of the word “Ponzi scheme”. A Ponzi scheme is a scheme were investors are promised a large profit from their investment into a successful business, but in the end are only getting paid back in older investments made by other investors. Ponzi was known widely in the 1920’s for this scheme as it allowed him to profit close to $250,000 a day. He strategically executed this scheme by purchasing discounted postage stamps with money given to him by investors and then selling them at regular price. This, in the end, helped make Ponzi millions of dollars and made his name a household name in the realm of white-collar crime. Ponzi was exposed to the world when his publicists began to see through the lies within his scheme and exposed him to the press. Charles Ponzi pleaded guilty eighty-six counts of mail fraud, owed over $7 million back to his investors, and was sentenced to fourteen years in prison. While in jail, Ponzi had gone completely broke and had all his assets seized by the American government. Many would agree that Charles Ponzi lived a life dedicated primarily to making quick money and benefiting from the naiveness of others. If I were to be charged with a crime, I honestly believe that it would have to be some form of white-collar crime. This ranges from minor crimes such as forgery to more extreme crimes such as embezzlement. Committing white-collar crime is so much of a less severe than crimes such as murder that I do not look at those who commit white-collar crime entirely as criminals. Yes, they did commit a crime but is it really as severe as murder or aggravated assault? The answer is no.
Some white-collar criminals, in some cases, will steal small amounts of money from numerous banking accounts and walk away with millions. The average person would probably not only not notice but also might not even care if forty cents went missing from their bank account. In this scenario, a white-collar criminal could steal forty cents from 200,000 banking accounts and walk away at the end of the day with a total of $8,0000 in hand. This is extremely mind-blowing given how much money can be made from just pressing a few buttons on a laptop. I bet these guys that hack into these accounts just run one program which allows them to access hundreds of thousands of accounts and withdraw funds. This $8,000 could all be made in one single day. If someone were to do this every single day for one year he or she would profit close to $3 million. This is why one should certainly be cognizant of all their accounts as they never know whether or no they will become the next victim.