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