Cooperating with investigations can be expensive and time-consuming: Just because you were accused does not mean you should spend every waking hour defending yourself. You need to be able to avoid spending the time and money complying with an ill-advised or frivolous investigation without being accused of obstruction of justice—itself a white-collar crime.

You can commit a crime without even knowing you are doing anything wrong: Some white-collar laws are so confusing that you could be considered guilty for simply committing certain acts, even if you did not know of their criminal character.

You can be punished out of proportion to your actual involvement: Prosecutors love to use the charge of conspiracy to prosecute a defendant for a white-collar crime that was actually committed by others, despite the defendant’s merely peripheral involvement, unwitting involvement, or in some cases, complete lack of involvement.

White-collar crimes prosecutions can be exceedingly complex: These laws often involve multiple defendants as well as complex factual, legal, and regulatory issues. Each facet of these issues can carry tremendous implications if it is not handled just right.