Just because a crime doesn’t involve violence, that doesn’t mean the penalties will be any less severe.

If you commit a white collar crime – a nonviolent, financially motivated crime such as fraud, embezzlement, bribery, money laundering, forgery, and others – you could be punished with a number of consequences, including:

Expensive fines as high as $1 million for certain offenses such as bank fraud Lengthy prison sentences Restitution – paying back the money you appropriated for yourself

Many people don’t necessarily think of white collar crimes as serious because they don’t involve violence. But white collar crimes are serious, and in the state of Illinois they can carry serious penalties.

What constitutes a white collar crime in our state? Essentially, these types of crimes involve money – someone getting rich off of someone else’s money – and white collar criminals are often glorified and become notorious for their escapades, despite having to spend years in prison [...]