The following assignment looks into White-collar crime, political crime as well as crime perpetrated by a person in an organized group. In brief, the assignment describes the crimes, the person who perpetrated it, what the criminality was and the victims of specific crime. Nevertheless, the paper explains the consequence of every case, like the sentence and punishment given for respective crime and an explanation of whether the punishment of every crime was justified and if those punishments for the wrongdoings fit the gravity of a particular crime. Lastly, the paper finalizes with explanations as to why the types of the mentioned crimes are punishable n the ways they are.
White-collar can be defined as the unlawful and unethical acts that infringe on the fiduciary obligation of community trust. Often, a single person or an organization commits a white crime, mostly during the period of legal professional activity and by people of respectable or high societal rank for individual or organizational benefit, for instance, the Bernard Maddoff's Ponzi scheme, a white-collar crime that involved Madoff and several investors. Madoff solicited clients to open business accounts based on the promise that they will have high returns and their trading accounts will have limited risks. Madoff gained his patrons' trust by reimbursing them what he had pledged. Unknown to patrons, all the funds were originating from the subsequent gotten investors. Madoff concealed the scheme by creating an insincere portfolio for his patrons as well as filed untrue statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Madoff's crime involved one count of securities scam, investment advisor scam, mail scam, three rounds of money laundering, perjury, incorrect statements, untrue filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as well as thievery from a worker benefit plan and 11 counts of fraud.
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The victims of Madoff's scheme were thousands of individuals, institutions and charitable foundations. In the case, Maddoff pleaded guilty of all the offenses. The sentencing judge in agreement with United States Attorney's Office sentenced Madoff for 150 years of imprisonment, including trial and assets loss. The punishment rendered to Madoff is justifiable since the nature of crime is extraordinarily evil and cost thousands of individuals their jobs including financial security. On the other hand, Madoff used stolen money from victims to finance his extravagant lifestyle.
In addition to white-collar crime, there is the political white-collar crime that defines the conduct of public officials including politicians and other government officials. The political white-collar crime is conducted for individual benefit or for the benefit of an individual's political party. The political white-collar crime could be in form of cash bribe or an alternative advantage like political benefits having to do with financial gains. Thus, political white-collar crime involves insider trading, extortion, racketeering, corruption, and bribes. For instance Paul Manafort, ex-Trump campaign chairman was found guilty of financial fraud by the Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office. Manafort was involved in the 2016 Russian presidential race and being a political consultant in Ukraine, he engaged himself in the mortgage fraud and falsified business records ( Polantz, & Cohen, 2019) . Manafort's crime was conducting bank fraud, failing to reveal the bank accounts and conducting eight counts of fraud ( LaFraniere, Vogel, & Haberman, 2018) . He pleaded guilty to some of the crime. The victims in the crime were many individuals and banks. The outcome of the case was loss of money between $12 million to $30 million and Manafort was sentenced for three and a half year of imprisonment ( BBC News, 2019) . Given nature and the huge amount of money lost the punishment the sentencing fell below the federal guidelines recommendations. Manafort could have served up to 24 years of imprisonment ( BBC News, 2019) .
Finally, there is the organized white-collar crime. Organized crime can be defined as a crime that is violent or non-violent in nature and is mostly committed for the revenue of a group of persons with ranked internal organization. Organized crimes include racketeering, theft, robbery, drug dealing, illegal smuggling of goods, human trafficking for prostitution and assault. John Joseph Gotti, Jr. was an undisputed member and leader of the American Mafia as well as the leader of the Gambino crime group. Gotti Jr. led Gambino throughout the latter half of the 20th century. Known for his outspoken characteristic and exclusive style, Gotti Jr. embodied the image of the glorified gangster (Bertram, (2018).
The victims in Gotti Jr.'s organized group were individuals who were being trafficked for prostitution and used illegal drugs, individuals who were robbed of their properties, business people who faced stiffer competition due to smuggled goods and those who were assaulted. The outcome of Gotti Jr.'s case 13 counts of murder cases in 1992, including other crimes. Without parole, Gotti Jr. was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was sent to solitary confinement where he spent on 23 hours a day. Gotti Jr.'s punishment is justifiable given the weight of his cases that involved the murder of people, human trafficking, smuggling of goods, and extortion among other several cases.
According to Marriott (2018), the three natures of crimes are punishable in the ways they are because their behavior causes huge social harm. The victims are mostly financially affected to a greater extent, some have their life savings eroded and others die in the course. Therefore, such acts affect the lives and future of the victims. Additionally, the crimes are chastised in the manner they are in order to eliminate any motivation not to obey the law (Gottschalk, 2017), and to send the general message and caution to the public that the kinds of behaviors are unacceptable and will be punished harshly. Thus, the punishments direct the community to match their actions to the limits of the law (Testa, 2015).
References
BBC News. (2019). Paul Manafort: Ex-Trump campaign chief jailed for fraud. BBC . Retrieved on 12 June 2019, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47491688
Bertram, C. (2018). The life and death of John Gotti. A&E Television Networks, LLC. Retrieved on 12 June 2019, from https://www.biography.com/news/john-gotti-ae-documentary-gotti-godfather-son
Gottschalk, P. (2017). Convenience in white-collar crime: Introducing a core concept. Deviant Behavior , 38 (5), 605-619.
LaFraniere, S. Vogel, K. P. & Haberman, M. (2018). The rise and fall of Paul Manafort: Greed, deception and ego. New York Times . Retrieved on 12 June 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/12/us/politics/manafort-trump-trial.html
Marriott, L. (2018). Pursuit of white-collar crime in New Zealand. Journal of Australian Taxation , 20 (2).
Polantz, K. & Cohen, M. (2019). Prosecutors say Manafort's 'criminal actions were bold' in redacted sentencing memo. Cable News Network . Retrieved on 12 June 2019, from https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/23/politics/manafort-sentencing-memo-mueller/index.html
Testa, A. (2015). A tale of two crimes: An analysis of criminal sentencing of white-collar and street offenders (Doctoral dissertation).
