FINANCIAL CRIMES - DEFINITION | EXPLANATION | TYPES



Financial crimes are defined as crime against property involving the unlawful conversion of property belonging to another to one’s own personal use and benefit.23 Financial crimes often involve fraud and are carried out through check and credit fraud, mortgage fraud, medical fraud, cooperate fraud, bank account fraud, payment point of sale fraud, currency fraud and health care fraud, they involve acts such as insider trading, tax violations, kick backs, embezzlement, identify theft, cyber attacks and money laundering like the cases of Cecilia Ibru of Oceanic Bank and Erastus Akingbola of Intercontinental Bank who were sacked by the Central Bank of Nigeria after committing financial crimes attest to this fact.24 


Financial crimes sometimes, but not always involve criminal acts such as armed robbery, burglary and even murder victims range from individuals to institutions, corporations, governments and entire economies.25

On the other hand, it is sufficient to know that financial rimes include offences commonly called “white collar crime”. White collar crimes have over time generated a lot of controversies.

The National public survey on white collar crime was administered between January and April 1999, and the information from the survey on white collar crime is highly significant, for it is clear that the public is sensitive to the ever increasing threat of white collar crime and strongly supports the existence and enhancement of control programmes as well as stronger and more stringent punishment like fine, penalties, convictions and imprisonment for those convicted of white collar crimes.26 In addition to the above; lack of a clear definition of financial crimes and white collar crime is evident because there is no unified or standardized definition of financial crimes. But it has been defined approximately as a crime committed by a person of respectable and high social status in the course of his occupation.27 

Wellford and ingraham suggest three different classes of white collar crimes:
i.                    Business and professional crimes
ii.                 Occupational crimes
Individual frauds
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