Dear White Collar Criminals,
You’ve done it. You have successfully ruined the financial status of thousands of people. All for what? Is it for your own personal greed? Perhaps, but I am not here to bash you for what you have done, I am here to simply make you realize what you have done. I want you to open your eyes to the bigger picture. The bigger picture being people outside of your large corporation. Believe it or not, you affect much more than you think you do. I can only imagine that receiving enormous amounts of money at a time can give someone a rush like no other, but that rush and all that money is being fueled by innocent people that are being tricked and lied to. I know this letter will not eradicate all illicit money making activities; however, if this letter gets through to at least one person, I have done my job.
White collar crime is committed on a daily basis, whether it is caught or not. According to the National White Collar Crime Center, in 2010 criminal income was roughly around $350 billion. This includes, but not limited to, money laundering, tax evasion, and check fraud. Let me put this in perspective for you. Bill Gates is the richest man in the United States of America. His net worth according to Forbes is $76 billion. The amount of illegal money white collar criminals have brought in in just one year is nearly five times the net worth of the richest man in our country. Imagine what $350 billion dollars could have been used for in positive reinforcement. Instead, you were too busy thinking of yourself. You were too blinded by the wealth and riches to even open your eyes to how much destruction you have caused.
Aside from the economic damages you criminals do to our nation’s economy, how about the damages you do to the average Joe? The hard-working middle class who earns their living respectively? These schemes and frauds affect a lot more than you think. It has a ripple effect. For the few who haven’t heard the age-old expression, allow me to explain. Once you throw a rock into a lake, there is one big splash. If you examine closer, you can see all the ripples that continue on past the big splash. When you commit a white collar crime you are causing a splash in the lake, and these ripples are innocent people losing money. The sad part is, that these innocent people have no idea that they are being swindled. What is even worse than that is that these suit wearing executives do not care about these innocent people. They are only concerned with their image and monetary gains. Your illegal activities go far beyond the big splash. It’s my belief that every ripple matters, and it all comes back on you.
One example of this is the recent Volkswagen scandal. Basically, the CEO of VW introduced a new software in 2009 to cheat on emission tests. According to Bloomberg, it was an “independent research institution, not the Environmental Protection Agency, that caught VW in the act.” These cars that were “passing” the emission tests were spewing out an absurd amount of nitrogen oxide. Which can cause illnesses such as bronchitis, and can even lead to death. What kind of legal punishment did the chief executive receive? None. Meanwhile, blameless people driving these cars were getting sick and even being hospitalized. I’m sure the CEO was not worried about a random family of five driving around in the defected Volkswagen. He was most worried about the chance of his job being jeopardized because investors were pulling out. He was most worried about the stock price falling tremendously. I would venture to say it never even crossed his mind the damage he was doing.
Why do I feel so strongly about this? What does any of this have to concern me? Well, recently I was a victim to a check fraud by a scam artist. I was approached by a random stranger who was asking for my help. As a nice human-being, I obliged. He asked me if I could cash his check for him because his bank was nowhere near. I happily did it for the man, but not realizing that the check was fake. A few days later, the check bounced and I was left in a considerable amount in debt with my bank. Looking back on it, I shouldn’t have done this man a favor, or at least asked some more questions. Nonetheless, hindsight is 20/20 and I also learned a very valuable lesson.
It wasn’t a “white collar crime” per se, but it did peak my interest. I started to research and find out more about this “under wraps” economy. To my surprise, it is a lot larger problem than I would have ever suspected. I wanted to raise awareness to this ongoing problem, and open not only the guilty’s eyes, but the eyes of the people who have no clue about white collar crime. So many people do not even know what is going on in these big corporations. So few have the knowledge to how corrupt and crooked these companies are being ran. It is ironic because so many people are being affected without even knowing.
Hopefully you will get something out of this. I have mentioned quite a few times that my goal is to bring you to realization. I hope you can realize how much damage you are doing on a large and small scale. However, I cannot stop you. No one can. Only you can understand how much dismay you are actually causing. Like I previously stated, this letter will not get rid of the white collar crime, but if it makes at least one person aware to this issue, then this letter was successful.
I just hope you realize
Sincerely,
Aaron
You’ve done it. You have successfully ruined the financial status of thousands of people. All for what? Is it for your own personal greed? Perhaps, but I am not here to bash you for what you have done, I am here to simply make you realize what you have done. I want you to open your eyes to the bigger picture. The bigger picture being people outside of your large corporation. Believe it or not, you affect much more than you think you do. I can only imagine that receiving enormous amounts of money at a time can give someone a rush like no other, but that rush and all that money is being fueled by innocent people that are being tricked and lied to. I know this letter will not eradicate all illicit money making activities; however, if this letter gets through to at least one person, I have done my job.
White collar crime is committed on a daily basis, whether it is caught or not. According to the National White Collar Crime Center, in 2010 criminal income was roughly around $350 billion. This includes, but not limited to, money laundering, tax evasion, and check fraud. Let me put this in perspective for you. Bill Gates is the richest man in the United States of America. His net worth according to Forbes is $76 billion. The amount of illegal money white collar criminals have brought in in just one year is nearly five times the net worth of the richest man in our country. Imagine what $350 billion dollars could have been used for in positive reinforcement. Instead, you were too busy thinking of yourself. You were too blinded by the wealth and riches to even open your eyes to how much destruction you have caused.
Aside from the economic damages you criminals do to our nation’s economy, how about the damages you do to the average Joe? The hard-working middle class who earns their living respectively? These schemes and frauds affect a lot more than you think. It has a ripple effect. For the few who haven’t heard the age-old expression, allow me to explain. Once you throw a rock into a lake, there is one big splash. If you examine closer, you can see all the ripples that continue on past the big splash. When you commit a white collar crime you are causing a splash in the lake, and these ripples are innocent people losing money. The sad part is, that these innocent people have no idea that they are being swindled. What is even worse than that is that these suit wearing executives do not care about these innocent people. They are only concerned with their image and monetary gains. Your illegal activities go far beyond the big splash. It’s my belief that every ripple matters, and it all comes back on you.
One example of this is the recent Volkswagen scandal. Basically, the CEO of VW introduced a new software in 2009 to cheat on emission tests. According to Bloomberg, it was an “independent research institution, not the Environmental Protection Agency, that caught VW in the act.” These cars that were “passing” the emission tests were spewing out an absurd amount of nitrogen oxide. Which can cause illnesses such as bronchitis, and can even lead to death. What kind of legal punishment did the chief executive receive? None. Meanwhile, blameless people driving these cars were getting sick and even being hospitalized. I’m sure the CEO was not worried about a random family of five driving around in the defected Volkswagen. He was most worried about the chance of his job being jeopardized because investors were pulling out. He was most worried about the stock price falling tremendously. I would venture to say it never even crossed his mind the damage he was doing.
Why do I feel so strongly about this? What does any of this have to concern me? Well, recently I was a victim to a check fraud by a scam artist. I was approached by a random stranger who was asking for my help. As a nice human-being, I obliged. He asked me if I could cash his check for him because his bank was nowhere near. I happily did it for the man, but not realizing that the check was fake. A few days later, the check bounced and I was left in a considerable amount in debt with my bank. Looking back on it, I shouldn’t have done this man a favor, or at least asked some more questions. Nonetheless, hindsight is 20/20 and I also learned a very valuable lesson.
It wasn’t a “white collar crime” per se, but it did peak my interest. I started to research and find out more about this “under wraps” economy. To my surprise, it is a lot larger problem than I would have ever suspected. I wanted to raise awareness to this ongoing problem, and open not only the guilty’s eyes, but the eyes of the people who have no clue about white collar crime. So many people do not even know what is going on in these big corporations. So few have the knowledge to how corrupt and crooked these companies are being ran. It is ironic because so many people are being affected without even knowing.
Hopefully you will get something out of this. I have mentioned quite a few times that my goal is to bring you to realization. I hope you can realize how much damage you are doing on a large and small scale. However, I cannot stop you. No one can. Only you can understand how much dismay you are actually causing. Like I previously stated, this letter will not get rid of the white collar crime, but if it makes at least one person aware to this issue, then this letter was successful.
I just hope you realize
Sincerely,
Aaron