white-collar crime

noun

1. any of various crimes, as embezzlement, fraud, or stealing office equipment, committed by business or professional people while working at their occupations.

Other Words From

• white-collar criminal noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of white-collar crime¹

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

The prison term was slightly shorter than the 21-year prison sentence sought by prosecutors, but is still unusually long for a white-collar crime.

From BBC

First-off, it is a white-collar crime, and to me, it really seems it was politically motivated because why wasn’t this brought up while he was in office?

From Slate

The Roberts Supreme Court has been deregulating corruption in both white-collar crime and campaign finance cases ever since they got there, and continued apace through this term.

From Slate

I think that you can threaten democracy both through violence and through white-collar crime.

From Slate

“I cannot say that any of the background information contained on these sites are accurate as they appear to be created by the defendant,” said Oanh Tran, deputy district attorney and member of the county’s Major Fraud Unit, which specializes in white-collar crime with losses over $100,000.

From Los Angeles Times