I began blogging about my experience as a white-collar innocent spouse in 2013 with the hope of connecting with other women who have had a similar experience. What began as a small support group of 4 members, now has membership in the triple digits, with representation from four continents.

In 2016, I formed The White-Collar Wives Project as a platform to support and advocate on behalf of non-offending white-collar spouses, and to join the ranks of those on the front lines of white-collar crime awareness and deterrence. Through many years of hard work and dedication, the WCWP is now widely recognized by esteemed professional trade associations, colleagues in the field of deterrence, journalists, educators, national news media outlets, documentary filmmakers, and international television networks. The WCWP has been featured in the New York Times, The American Bar Association, Forbes, ACFE, Market Watch, and numerous national podcasts.

Prior to The White-Collar Wives Project, there was no dedicated space of support and advocacy for innocent spouses and families of white-collar criminals because this unique population is often the target of misguided guilt by association. The reality is that they too are victims of white-collar crime, as they also suffer catastrophic legal, economic, and emotional losses through no fault of their own.

My unique vantage point has allowed me to go behind the scenes of many headline making occupational crimes that include an Australian government official who skimmed $25 million dollars from the people’s kitty, the operator of a billion dollar pay day loan company who took his civil FTC case to the Supreme Court and won because of the FTC’s misuse of monetary relief under 13(b), (the perp still ended up with a 17 year prison sentence in his criminal case), a well respected Manhattan doctor who peddled fentanyl scripts for kickbacks, and also the well known and now shuttered pharma company (that supplied the “good doctor”) which helped fuel the opioid crisis in America, and was fined over $200 million dollars for their kickback practices. But the white-collar criminals who make global headline news pail in comparison to the thousands of white-collar perps whose crimes only make front page news in their own communities.

Through my extensive work with innocent spouses I have had the opportunity to gather definitive empirical knowledge about how high risk tolerant professionals operate, and the threat they pose to themselves and others. My efforts have garnered recognition by national and international compliance and deterrence colleagues, professional trade associations, noted fraud examiners, attorneys in the white-collar legal community, and anti-fraud prevention networks.

Corporations have to deal with the internal and external ramifications in the aftermath of a lone actor’s workplace crime, but in most cases reputations are restored and financial losses are recouped from subsequent profits. But when a lone actor performs an occupational crime, family members of the perp are left in the dark shadows of shame and poverty, (due to loss of legitimate income and the government’s overreach in civil asset seizure of untainted joint assets), mental health issues, and children who are at high risk of self-destruction. The public too often views the family’s downfall as “just deserts” as they wrongly place guilt by association on innocent family members. The truth is, spouses and children usually don’t learn that a crime has been committed until and unless agents come knocking at their door at dawn.

Innocent spouses and children of white-color perps are rarely considered as victims of white-collar crime and this is a serious miscalculation because not only are these crimes an acute familial betrayal, but too many legal jurisdictions deny the non-offending spouse due process by negating their legal standing as JOINT OWNERS OF THE MARITAL ESTATE in civil asset seizure actions against the offender. A large portion of my work consists of guiding innocent spouses through these harsh legal issues by providing strategic planning to try to mitigate their own financial loss, and to also guide them through the emotional morass that every family of a white-collar criminal experiences.

Perps don’t believe they will be caught, and also believe that if they are caught, that the only victims of their nefarious actions would be the company or client(s), and the only punishment would be to themselves via incarceration. But incarceration is only one component of their punishment, and until and unless the far reaching and long lasting consequences to themselves and their family members are known, these crimes will continue. Above all, perps have no understanding that financially motivated crimes are not done for the family, but to the family. Easy money isn’t easy. In fact, it’s the hardest cash anyone can come by.

All white-collar convicts would agree in hindsight that had they known of the utter destruction their crimes would bring to themselves and their family, they never would have even considered performing criminally. It is time to recognize white-collar crime as not only being an occupational hazard, but also, a familial health crisis.

The WCWP shines a much needed light in the dark corners of the toxic wasteland that is white-collar crime. Noted anthropologist Margaret Mead once said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has." Lest there be any doubt, the WCWP is not comprised of “little ladies” with a cause, but rather, highly vested frontline compliance stakeholders who are at war with occupational crime. Keeping employees and corporations on the path of compliance is our mission…fraud prevention through education is our goal.

If you don’t believe the WCWP has a place in your anti-fraud programming, you haven’t been paying attention, because no matter where one is on the company ladder, family is the one thing all workers have in common.