Mail Fraud and Wire Fraud: Why Business Owners go to Prison

Overview

When federal prosecutors contemplate charges against business owners, two of their most potent and readily available tools include charges for mail fraud and wire fraud. The elements to convict for these crimes are clear: 1) The defendant devised or intended to devise a scheme or artifice to defraud, and, 2) in executing or attempting to execute the scheme, the defendant used or caused the use of mail or an interstate wire or wireless transmission. Mail, emails, cell phone calls, text messages, Internet transmissions, and even tweets could form the basis for charges of wire fraud or mail fraud. The crime of wire fraud is a reason that many business owners go to prison. In this course, we’ll learn about a few people who’ve experienced a conviction for wire fraud. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Highlights

The major topics that will be covered in this class include:

What is fraud?
How business owners become vulnerable to charges for mail fraud and wire fraud
What business leaders know about how communications can lead to criminal charges
Discussion of actual fraud cases involving business leaders that went to prison for wire fraud.
Federal sentencing guidelines
Sentencing for mail fraud and wire fraud convictions

Prerequisites

None

Designed For

Business leaders and people who work with business leaders.

Objectives

After attending this presentation you will be able to...

Define fraud
Identify business decisions that could lead to federal charges for wire or mail fraud
Describe what prosecutors must prove to sustain convictions for either wire fraud or mail fraud
Explain how the federal sentencing guidelines accommodate convictions for wire fraud or mail fraud
Understand why prosecutors rely upon wire-fraud statutes to charge business owners from any sector within the economy.

Preparation

None

Notice

This course is offered by a 3rd party vendor and will not be accessible in the My CPE Tracker section of the ISCPA website. Course access information will be emailed directly to you by CPA Crossings.