Corporate Crime
What Is Corporate Crime?
Corporate crime refers to crime that is committed by a company, or by an agent acting on behalf of the company, against any competitor, investor, creditor or member of the public.
The types of corporate crimes include:
- Bribery
- Fraud
- Tax Evasion
- Money Laundering
- Insider Trading
- Environmental Crime
Generally, a bribery offence is committed where a party is provided with a benefit with the intention of having the benefit influence their decision so that the briber may receive some form of positive outcome, such as gaining a significant business advantage. Whether the party being bribed declines or rejects the bribe is not important as the offence is still considered to have been committed.
It is important that if it was an agent who works for the company that the bribe was representing the company and making a bribe on behalf of the company, otherwise a corporate crime may have not been committed, rather they may be liable for some personal crime.
Fraud refers to crimes that are committed by a dishonest act that was performed intentionally or recklessly to obtain a benefit without the person being deceived being aware of what is occurring. For instance, in corporate crime, fraud is committed where a director of a company omits entries from the company’s books or embezzles money.
Tax evasion is committed where a company deliberately omits or dishonestly inserts income or expenses to manipulate their finances so that they may reduce the amount of tax payable to the ATO or to evade their tax obligations. A common example occurs where a company does not report all their income or where the company does not report wages paid in cash.
Money laundering is a crime where the source of money is manipulated so that it appears to originate from a legitimate source – generally, an attempt to conceal illegal activities. For instance, funnelling money through a restaurant business which was garnered from the sale of illicit drugs.
Money laundering is a crime where the source of money is manipulated so that it appears to originate from a legitimate source – generally, an attempt to conceal illegal activities. For instance, funnelling money through a restaurant business which was garnered from the sale of illicit drugs.
Environmental crime is an act that intentionally or recklessly breaks an environmental related law by causing harm to the environment – for instance, a company that illegally removes trees, disposes waste in a negligent manner or actions activity that causes damage to the habitat of animals.
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