Unit 2. Business crime

Практические занятия – 10 часов.

Внеаудиторная самостоятельная работа – 10 часов.

Аудиторная работа

Key vocabulary

pilferage – хищение, мелкая кража

pilfer - совершать мелкие кражи, воровать

bad check – фальшивый чек

consumer fraud – обман потребителя

insider trading – торговля внутренней информацией, операции с ценными бумагами на основе конфиденциальной информации

acquisition – приобретение

by-product – побочный продукт

identity theft – хищение персональных данных

copyright infringement – нарушение авторских прав

intercept – перехватывать

I. Read the text and translate it into Russian.

Business Crime

A business is subject to general criminal law. Some crimes are found more frequently in the business than elsewhere. Business firms are frequently the victims of crimes such as robbery, burglary, shoplifting, employee pilferage, passing bad checks, vandalism, receiving stolen property, and embezzlement. Less frequently, but often with large sums of money involved, business persons and firms may commit crimes. Because such criminals are generally well-educated, respected members of the community, the offenses are called white-collar crimes. Common examples of white-collar crimes are income tax evasion, consumer fraud, cheating with false weighing machines, conspiring to fix prices, insider trading, bribery and embezzlement. Normally no physical violence is involved in crimes of this nature. Thus, courts tend to be more soft with the criminals, punishing them with fines or short prison sentence.

Here are some of the common business-related crimes.

Industrial espionage is an acquisition of trade secrets from business competitors. A by-product of the technological revolution, industrial is a reaction to the efforts of many businessmen to keep secret their designs, formulas, manufacturing processes, research, and future plans in order to protect or expand their shares of the market. An employer who discovers that his trade secrets have been adopted by a competitor usually takes legal steps to prevent further invasions of his commercial privacy. The penalties against companies found guilty of usurping trade secrets may be an injunction against further use of the knowledge, an accounting and payment of all profits made from the utilization of pilfered information, or additional punitive damages if a violation of the company's rights has been flagrant.

Forgery is falsely making or altering any writing (e.g. the signature of another person). The most common forgeries are found on checks when one has signed another’s name without permission to do so. Forgery also includes altering a check, such as when one changes “$7” to “$70” and “seven” to “seventy”. Forgery is usually a felony.

Extortion (commonly known as blackmail) is obtaining money or other property from a person by wrongful use of force, fear, or the power of office. The extortionist (blackmailer) may threaten to inflict bodily injury on the victim or a close relative of the victim. Sometime the extortionist threatens to expose a secret crime if payment is not made.

Conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to do an unlawful criminal act, or to do a lawful act by unlawful means. Usually the agreement is secret. Depending on the circumstances, the crime may be either a felony, or a misdemeanour. Business executives of competing corporations sometimes conspire to fix prices or to divide markets.

Computer crimes encompass a broad range of potentially illegal activities. Generally, however, it may be divided into one of two types of categories: (1) crimes that target computer networks or devices directly (computer viruses); (2) crimes facilitated by computer networks or devices, the primary target of which is independent of the computer network or device (fraud or identity theft, information warfare, cyber terrorism, etc). Issues surrounding computer crime have become high-profile, particularly those surrounding hacking, copyright infringement. There are also problems of privacy when confidential information is lost or intercepted, lawfully or otherwise.

Ex. 1. Find in the text above the English equivalents for the following expressions.

- регулироваться уголовным правом

- жертва преступления

- образованные и уважаемые члены общества

- установить цены путем монополистического сговора

- держать в секрете разработки

- увеличить долю рынка

- постановление суда, запрещающее дальнейшее использование информации

- дополнительные штрафные санкции

- внесение изменений в банковский чек

- незаконное использование должностных полномочий

- предать огласке укрываемое преступление

- охватывать широкую сферу деятельности

Ex. 2. Here are the definitions of some business crimes. Can you name them?

a) illegally forcing someone to give you something, especially money, by threatening them

b) the crime of paying too little tax

c) the crime of using secret information that you have about a company or knowledge of a situation to buy or sell shares at a profit

d) unlawful use of cheques in order to illegally acquire or borrow funds that do not exist within the account balance or account-holder's legal ownership

e) stealing money from the place where you work

f) this crime compasses a wide range of fraudulent and deceptive practices in the advertising, marketing, sale, or provision of goods or services

g) a secret plan made by two or more people to do something that is harmful or illegal

II. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word from the box.

competent, abolished, reason, crimes, delinquency, sentenced, consistent, committed, poverty, punished, prisons, justice, released, innocent, unemployment, re-introduced

The number of serious _____ has increased in the past few years. Most of these crimes are _____ for economic and social reasons. What can _____ do to reduce them?

Each country has its own laws, that is why the same crime can be _____ in different ways. The first ____ why judges should give stricter sentences is because more and more criminals are no longer afraid of being _____. They know that ____ are overcrowded and that most of them will be _____ early for good behaviour. Therefore justice should be more _____ and give sentences which will immediately frighten criminals.

The second reason is that in certain countries capital punishment has been _____. This special sentence could be _____ for very difficult cases. For example, a terrorist responsible for the deaths of _____ people should not be kept alive.

On the other hand lots of crimes are committed because of ____ and ____ . _____ cannot be cured by stricter sentences. Some people need to be directly helped in their lives at school, work, and in the family.

To sum up, for shocking crimes capital punishment should be used but carefully. Anyway, justice should be more _____ and precise in order to take care against mistakes.