WHITE COLLAR CRIME Definition

WHITE COLLAR CRIME is a number of miscellaneous nonviolent crimes lumped together as white collar crimes. There is no fixed definition of white collar crime, although it usually includes bribery, embezzlement, fraud, forgery, and violations of trust committed by corporations or individuals engaged in commerce. Historically, in the U.S. many white collar crimes have received lenient punishment from a criminal justice system that considered white collar crimes to be less serious than more violent crimes. Today, the trend is for stricter punishment of white collar crimes in recognition of the financial damage they inflict on society.

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DOUBLE LEVERAGE usually refers to a situation where a holding company raises debt and downstreams it as equity capital, or subordinated debt, to a subsidiary, i.e. it is the use of debt by both the parent company and the subsidiary, in combination with the companys equity capital, to finance the assets of the subsidiary.

ADVERSE OPINION is expressed if the basis of accounting is unacceptable and distorts the financial reporting of the corporation. If auditors discover circumstances during the course of the audit that make them question whether they can issue an unqualified opinion, they should always discuss those circumstances with the client before issuing the opinion, in order to determine whether it is possible to rectify the problem.

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