White Collar Crime & Embezzlement Defense in Saratoga Springs

Accused of Taking Money You Were Trusted With

White collar cases in Saratoga County rarely start with an arrest. They start with an audit: a bookkeeper’s reconciliation that does not balance, a nonprofit treasurer’s report questioned by a board member, a contractor’s customer deposits that never reached the supplier, a medical office’s billing that an insurer flagged. Then comes a meeting where someone asks you to explain, and often an offer to “work it out” if you sign something. By the time a charge is filed, the employer’s accountant has usually built a spreadsheet, and that spreadsheet is the case.

Attorney Andrew DeLuca defends embezzlement, falsifying business records, fraud, forgery, and identity theft charges in the courts of Saratoga, Warren, Washington, Fulton, and Montgomery Counties, and represents people during the investigation stage before any charge exists. If an investigator has called you, or your employer has asked you to come in, call before that meeting, not after it.

To talk to Andrew directly, at any time call 518-245-9109

Sentencing for a First White Collar Felony

None of the offenses above is a violent felony, so a first felony offender is sentenced under Penal Law 70.00’s indeterminate rules: a prison sentence is a range whose maximum is capped by class (4, 7, 15, or 25 years) and whose minimum is at least one year and no more than one-third of the maximum. The court can instead impose probation of three, four, or five years, a conditional discharge of three years, a split sentence of up to six months in jail plus probation, or, for class D and E felonies, a definite local jail term of a year or less. A class A misdemeanor carries up to 364 days in jail and probation of two or three years. Fines are the higher of $5,000 or double the defendant’s gain for a felony, and $1,000 or double the gain for a misdemeanor. A second felony offender, meaning a prior felony sentence within the last ten years, faces mandatory state prison under Penal Law 70.06, with no probation option.

Restitution Is Usually the Center of the Negotiation

Penal Law 60.27 requires the sentencing court to consider restitution in every case. The statute’s $15,000 felony and $10,000 misdemeanor caps do not apply where the defendant consents, where restitution is a condition of probation or a conditional discharge, or to the extent the amount is the return of the victim’s property or its equivalent value. For a theft of money, that last exception means the full amount is recoverable, plus a 5 percent surcharge paid to the agency that collects it. Because the employer usually wants its money more than it wants a trial, the ability to document repayment, or to fund it, frequently determines whether a felony is reduced, whether jail is on the table, and sometimes whether the matter is resolved before charges are filed. Andrew works through the restitution question with clients at the first meeting, because the answer shapes everything that follows.

The Consequences That Outlast the Sentence

• Professional licenses. For nurses, accountants, pharmacists, and the other professions licensed under Title VIII of the Education Law, conviction of any crime is professional misconduct under Education Law 6509(5), with an expedited disciplinary track and penalties up to license revocation and a $10,000 fine per charge. A misdemeanor counts.
• Employment. Correction Law Article 23-A bars employers and licensing agencies from denying a job or license because of a conviction unless there is a direct relationship to the position or an unreasonable risk. A larceny conviction for someone who will handle money is the direct relationship the statute describes, so this protection is thinner in white collar cases than in most.
• Certificates of relief. A Certificate of Relief from Disabilities is available to a person with no more than one felony conviction and lifts automatic bars, though not discretionary ones. A Certificate of Good Conduct is the route for people with more than one felony, after a waiting period of three years for a class C, D, or E felony and five for a class A or B felony.
• Immigration. Under federal law a fraud or deceit offense with a loss to the victim over $10,000, or a theft offense with a sentence of a year or more, can be an aggravated felony, and these offenses are frequently treated as crimes involving moral turpitude. A non-citizen client needs immigration counsel involved before any plea is discussed.
• The record. Sealing under CPL 160.59 and the Clean Slate Act may be available later; see our record sealing page.

How These Cases Are Defended

A white collar prosecution is a case about intent and arithmetic, and both are contestable.

• Intent to steal. Larceny requires an intent to deprive the owner of the property. Money moved under an informal arrangement the owner later disavows, draws against commissions or pay the business owed you, commingled accounts in a family company, and plain bookkeeping error are not larceny, however bad the ledger looks. Most small-business theft cases involve at least some of that.
• The number. The felony class turns on the total, and the total comes from the accuser’s own audit. Andrew examines who prepared it, what was assumed, which transactions were counted twice, and which had an innocent explanation. Moving a case from above a threshold to below it changes the felony class, and separating takings that were never one scheme defeats aggregation.
• Access and attribution. Shared logins, a QuickBooks password taped to a monitor, and a cash drawer four people used are common in Saratoga County’s small businesses, and they are reasonable doubt about who made the entry.
• Your statements. The interview where you were asked to explain is often the strongest evidence of intent the State has. Whether it was voluntary, whether you were told you could leave, and what was promised in exchange all bear on whether it comes in.
• Resolution before charges. When the evidence is strong, the best outcome is often reached before an indictment: a negotiated repayment, a plea to a misdemeanor or a non-criminal disposition, and a record that a licensing board never sees. That work is only possible if the lawyer is involved early.

White Collar Cases in Saratoga County and the Capital Region

Saratoga County’s economy runs on small employers where one person often handles the money: restaurants and hotels that swell during the summer racing meet, contractors, medical and dental offices, nonprofits, school booster clubs, and family businesses. Investigations here are run by the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office, the Saratoga Springs Police Department, and the State Police, and felony charges are prosecuted in Saratoga County Court in Ballston Spa. The same pattern holds in Warren County (Warren County Court in Lake George), Washington County (Fort Edward), Fulton County (Johnstown), and Montgomery County (Fonda). This page covers New York State charges; matters charged in federal court run under a separate system with its own sentencing rules.