Criminals, dressed in three piece suits - commit white collar crimes. White collar crime is committed by successful, important, respected businessmen, who are criminals. The moral fiber of a well dressed, respected, successful business person who commits fraud, is not better than that of a street person who commits fraud. The character of white collar criminals is just as flawed and destructive as your common street criminals. Perhaps more so, since white collar crime is more often motivated solely by greed rather than need, with a side of ego.
But the public seems to view them very differently. White collar criminals are considered good people who accidentally made one bad decision. While a "common" criminal, even if charged only once with a crime, is considered a bad person who probably was lucky to only have been caught one time.
The only difference between the common criminal and the whited collar criminal is their PR department. For far too long, white collar unlawfulness has been regarded as clever business maneuvers, and the white collar participants as consummate business executives, who excel at utilizing successful strategies,guaranteeing huge profits and a viable business in a Capitalistic economy. That description makes it sound almost noble.
Fraud, deception, implied threats (perhaps not physical - but disastrous all the same), collusion, theft, price fixing, misrepresentation, creative accounting, (the list goes on, and on), by any other name are the same. Plus, big executives play high stakes games so the damage they cause is greater and far reaching. Their targets are often regular people who can ill afford the loss, leaving them financially and emotionally in a deep hole if not permanently devastated.
However, the damage that their "mistakes" cause, plus the detailed plans, decisions and multiple actions required to implement that "mistake", are somehow over looked. The spot light remains on their manufactured image and their real success, no matter by what means it was achieved.
Sadly, for the most part, it is the whistle blowers, the courageous and noble individuals who refuse to silence their conscious with rationalizations and justifications, that are the most misjudged and condemned. Yet, they are the ones that sacrifice their professional career, that are subjected to ridicule and condemnation, who risk immediate and long term financial ruin, who experience legal ramifications and sometimes criminal accusations, who often loose friends and strain family relations, who do not look the other way to ensure and protect their success, their high social and economic status or the respect of their peers and the public. Instead, they choose to reveal the wrong doing and the resulting harm it has or may cause. They have the character and the moral fortitude to do the right thing, knowing that there will be hell for them to pay for so doing. And these are the people who are most maligned.
The fact that white collar criminals are rarely held accountable for their crimes is upsetting. The resistance of the government to enacting and enforcing legislation to regulate and ban business practices that are questionable, harmful to the public, or detrimental to the economy is very troubling on several levels.
It sometimes appears that society regards a white collar criminal, who has attained wealth, power, and success, as still being more valuable and deserving of respect than the average citizen. Certainly, more deserving than the whistle blower, often motivated only by the desire to adhere to their principles and to prevent others from being victimized, who must summon their courage to inform the public of the white collar criminals' destructive strategies.
Wealth, power, success, respect: Deserves sometimes has little to do with it. It is not what you have that indicates your level of character and adherence to principles. It is how you got it, the choices you made, your treatment of others, the priorities and principles that you upheld, even when there was something to loose. It is how you lived rather than how much you attained that is the true measure of one's character.