If you’re accused of a white collar crime, like fraud or money laundering, you’ll likely face significant stress as you wonder how things are going to turn out. Unfortunately, your case is unlikely to be resolved quickly; in most cases, it takes months, if not years, to complete an investigation.
Why do white collar crimes take so long to investigate?
The Short Answer
According to the criminal defense experts at SBBL Law, “White collar crimes take a long time to investigate because there’s so much to do. There are dozens of necessary, unskippable steps to follow, and there are potentially millions of electronic files and pieces of information to wade through.”
Even relatively simple white collar crimes can take a long time to investigate simply because there is so much evidence to review. Think about it this way: How long would it take you to read through 25,000 emails to find a couple of messages that might incriminate a defendant? Even if you had a team of five people working constantly, you would still have to read about 5,000 emails apiece.
That said, there are more details that influence how long it takes to investigate these types of crimes.
Criminal and Civil Procedures
In many white collar criminal matters, there are both criminal elements and civil elements in play. Accordingly, both sides of these matters need to follow both criminal and civil procedures. There are many important procedural steps to follow in the legal realm, and skipping even a single step could derail the entire process. The discovery phase itself can last months to years, and both parties need to obey the rules for discovery to the letter.
Court Proceedings
There are massive court backlogs in most areas of the country, and for several reasons. Law enforcement and prosecutor offices are similarly overworked. Accordingly, these teams simply don’t have the resources to plow through white collar crime cases at an expedited rate. In many ways, we’re at the mercy of whatever pace these legal institutions can muster.
Jurisdiction Issues
The problems can be compounded when there are multiple jurisdictions in play. If you’re the subject of a white collar crime investigation that unfolds over several states, or across several countries, it could take a long time to sort out all the legal ramifications and make sure the case is filed and pursued appropriately.
Financial Transaction Complexity
Many white collar crimes are financial in nature. They have to do with things like fraud, embezzlement, and misrepresentation. Unfortunately, financial transactions can be inordinately complex, especially when they involve large sums of money and multiple parties. It can take a long time to figure out exactly what money went where, especially if there’s a party who has made an effort to cover their tracks.
Sophisticated Schemes
On top of that, white collar crimes are often very sophisticated schemes, with intelligent people working together to execute them. This presents a couple of problems.
First, white collar criminals are sometimes very methodical and intelligent, and they may have taken efforts to hide or distort evidence that would otherwise work against them. This makes the investigation much harder and more time consuming.
Second, because there are many people working together, sometimes in a quiet conspiracy, it’s hard to find the culpable party immediately.
Mountains of Electronic Evidence
As you might imagine, prosecuting a white collar crime requires gathering large volumes of electronic evidence. In the discovery process, each party is responsible for producing any and all relevant evidence they can with respect to the legal matter in play. However, this can sometimes result in the production of hundreds of thousands, or even millions of records that both sides need to meticulously comb through. Just reading through the evidence can take months.
Gray Areas and Sufficient Evidence
There are substantial gray areas in the law with respect to white collar crime. It’s not always clear how culpability is established or when, exactly, a crime takes place. With borderline legal matters, it’s important to push for more evidence and research – which, of course, takes more time.
Ongoing Communication
Throughout the entire process, parties will be communicating with each other. Defendants will be talking to lawyers. Prosecutors will be talking to law enforcement. Both sides will be talking to experts. Most people are busy and can’t respond right away, so even small delays in communication can add up quickly.
Strategic Delays
Additionally, both parties may intentionally and strategically delay the process for their own aims. This makes an already long process even longer.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do to make the process quicker – at least, not without compromising our ability to seek truth and justice in the matter. But with a better understanding of the process and complexities of investigating white collar crimes, you may come to better appreciate why the process is so long and challenging.