Assignment On Debra Anne Chapin White Collar Crime

News Article Analysis

The news article that I decided to do my assignment on is about a bank manager, Debra Anne Chapin, that embezzled 2 million dollars from a bank. The news article’s title is, “Former manager jailed for cheating bank out of $2M; Woman used cash to pay bills, gamble and feed her cocaine habit.” The crime took place in Calgary between June 1, 2006 and June, 30 2008. This embezzlement is a classic case of white collar crime and demonstrates numerous criminological theories. Debra became the assistant vice-president and manager of energy lending of a Canadian Western Bank on January 31, 2006. Within a month Debra set up her embezzlement scam by creating two corporations that the embezzled funds would be funnelled too. Debra set up an account in a woman’s name using the woman’s GIC (guaranteed investment certificate) which was worth 8 million dollars. Debra started with 100,000 dollars in a line of credit using the woman’s name and increased it 6 times until the line of credit reached $950,0000 on November 6, 2007. Additionally, Debra arranged for 5 new accounts in the same woman’s name with a total deposit of $16.4 million. Debra made 72 unauthorized withdrawals from the fake account in the two year time frame of the scam. She kept the scam going by transferring money from the

Debra’s crime is a perfect example of the rational choice theory. The rational choice theory is best defined as when an individual rationally decides to commit a crime. The individual’s decision to commit a crime or not is based on the potential gains and potential losses. Debra embezzled nearly 2 million dollars so she most likely decided to commit the crime based on potential gains. In addition, Debra must have known that her chances of getting caught would be slim. Since she was smart enough to commit such a crime, she most likely funnelled the money to an offshore