Crimes - Offenses Involving Trade, Business, And Professions

Fraud, theft, and MISREPRESENTATION are extensively covered in state and federal statutes concerning virtually every occupation. These laws prohibit a wide variety of acts ranging from simulating gemstones and rigging weight scales to impersonating a doctor or a police officer, breaching confidentiality, and engaging in insider trading (the buying or selling of publicly held corporate shares by persons with inside or advance information regarding the corporation). The fraudulent use of credit cards is also the subject of criminal statutes. And CABLE TELEVISION and computers have inspired a number of criminal statutes punishing their abuse; state statutes, for example, punish the theft of cable television services.