Nashville White Collar Crime Attorney
These cases are built quietly, over months, out of documents you already signed. Austin Tomlinson is a Nashville white collar crime attorney who defends fraud, forgery and embezzlement allegations in Davidson County, from the investigation stage forward.
Most White Collar Cases Are Decided Before Anyone Is Charged
By the time a financial case reaches an arrest, the investigation has usually been running for months. Records are subpoenaed, accounts are reconstructed, and people who worked alongside you have already been interviewed. If you are hearing about it now, you are hearing about it late, and the window that matters is still open.
The interview is the trap. When a company's own lawyers or an outside investigator ask you to sit down and walk through what happened, they are not your counsel. They work for the company, their notes are discoverable, and they can hand the file to a prosecutor. An employee trying to be cooperative and clear things up can hand over the case without ever realizing a case existed.
If you have received a target letter, a grand jury subpoena, a litigation hold, or a request to come in and explain a transaction, call before you answer it.
Tennessee Has No Charge Called Embezzlement
Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-14-101, theft is a single consolidated offense that absorbed the pre-1989 crimes of embezzlement, false pretense, fraudulent conversion, larceny, receiving or concealing stolen property and other similar offenses. Someone accused of embezzling from an employer in Tennessee is charged with theft, graded by dollar value.
That matters more than it sounds. It means the charge that shows up on the warrant is driven by a number, not by how the money moved or how bad it looks. The same conduct is a misdemeanor at $900 and a Class B felony at $60,000. Everything turns on how the State arrived at its figure, which is where a Nashville white collar crime attorney starts.
| Amount alleged | Offense class |
|---|---|
| $1,000 or less | Class A misdemeanor |
| More than $1,000 but less than $2,500 | Class E felony |
| $2,500 to less than $10,000 | Class D felony |
| $10,000 to less than $60,000 | Class C felony |
| $60,000 to less than $250,000 | Class B felony |
| $250,000 or more | Class A felony |
In a financial case the number is an argument, not a fact. Loss figures get built by an accountant working from the company's own records, often months later, often with assumptions baked in about which transactions count. Gross versus net, authorized draws counted as losses, overlapping periods double counted. Moving that figure below a threshold moves the entire case down a class.
Financial Crimes Tennessee Actually Charges
Beyond consolidated theft, Tennessee has specific statutes for forgery, identity theft, card fraud, money laundering and computer offenses. Several of them are graded through the same value ladder. Two of them are not, and those are the ones that surprise people.
| Offense | How it is graded | Class |
|---|---|---|
| Money laundering § 39-14-903(a) to (c) |
Flat, regardless of amount | Class B felony |
| Identity theft trafficking § 39-14-150 |
Flat, regardless of amount | Class C felony |
| Identity theft § 39-14-150 |
Flat, regardless of amount | Class D felony |
| Forgery § 39-14-114 |
By value, with a felony floor | Class E felony minimum |
| Theft, including embezzlement conduct §§ 39-14-103, 39-14-105 |
By value | Class A misd. to Class A felony |
| Illegal possession or fraudulent use of a credit or debit card § 39-14-118 |
By value obtained; Class A misdemeanor if nothing was obtained | Varies by amount |
| Computer fraud offenses § 39-14-602(a) |
By value, through § 39-14-105 | Varies by amount |
| Unauthorized computer access § 39-14-602(b) |
Flat | Class A misdemeanor |
Money laundering is the charge to watch. Section 39-14-903 is not graded by dollar amount at all. The core offenses at subsections (a), (b) and (c) are Class B felonies no matter the sum involved, which means the laundering count can carry a heavier class than the theft it is attached to. Prosecutors add it when money moved between accounts after the fact, and it changes the negotiating posture of the whole case. One narrow business-entity provision at § 39-14-903(d)(1) runs the other way: a Class E felony punishable by a $5,000 fine and forfeiture, with no confinement.
A Forged $50 Check Is a Felony. A $50 Theft Is Not.
Forgery at Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-14-114 is punished as theft under the value ladder above, but in no event less than a Class E felony. The floor does not move. Signing someone else's name to a small check is a felony in Tennessee where taking the same amount in cash would be a Class A misdemeanor.
People consistently underestimate this one because the dollar figure looks trivial. The dollar figure is not what makes it a felony. The act is.
State Charge or Federal Case?
This is the single most consequential question in a white collar matter. Federal wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1343 carries up to 20 years, and up to 30 years with a fine up to $1,000,000 where the offense affects a financial institution or relates to a presidentially declared disaster or emergency. Tennessee's top theft tiers are not far off on raw years, a Class A felony running 15 to 60 under § 40-35-111, but the rest of the math is nothing alike.
Almost any modern financial case touches a wire. An email, a bank transfer, a card swipe, a text message. That is the hook that lets a case that looks like a state theft be charged federally instead, in the Middle District of Tennessee, under different rules, different sentencing math and a different prosecutor.
Federal sentencing does not work like state sentencing. There is no parole in the federal system and good-conduct credit is capped, where Tennessee sentences run on range classifications and release eligibility percentages. The federal fine ceiling is twenty times Tennessee's. And the sentence is driven by an advisory guidelines calculation in which the loss amount, the number of victims and whether a position of trust was abused all move the range substantially. Two defendants with the same conviction can land very far apart on those inputs alone, which is why the accounting fight is not a technicality.
Anyone facing a financial investigation should know which direction it is heading before making a single decision about cooperation, restitution or a statement. That assessment comes first, not after.
Where White Collar Cases Are Actually Contested
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The Loss Number
How the figure was built, what it counts, and what it double counts. This is the single highest-leverage fight in the case, in both state and federal court.
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Intent Versus Mess
Theft requires intent. Sloppy books, informal arrangements and undocumented approvals look identical to fraud on a spreadsheet and are not the same thing.
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Authority and Permission
Whether the transaction was actually authorized, by whom, and whether the practice had been accepted for years before it became an allegation.
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Reliance on Professionals
Advice from an accountant, bookkeeper or lawyer bears directly on intent. That history has to be documented early, before memories and files get tidy.
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The Document Set
These cases are won in the records. What the State selected, what it left out, and what the full set shows in context is where the real work is.
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Parallel Proceedings
A civil suit, an insurance claim or a licensing board matter can run alongside the criminal case. Testimony in one can be used in another and has to be coordinated.
What a Financial Conviction Does to a Career
A theft or fraud conviction is a crime of dishonesty, and that is a category licensing boards, clearance adjudicators and employment screeners all look at closely. In practice it can do more damage to a career than offenses carrying far longer sentences.
Nurses, contractors, real estate and insurance licensees, CPAs, anyone holding a clearance, and anyone whose job requires bonding all face a parallel problem that does not end when the criminal case does. Some Tennessee licensing boards require reporting on a charge or a plea rather than waiting for a conviction, and where that applies the deadline is usually short. Which rule governs depends on your board, and it is worth checking in the first week rather than the first month.
This is why the objective is the record, not the sentence. Keeping a dishonesty conviction off a person's history is usually worth more over a lifetime than any amount of time shaved off a sentence. Diversion and dismissal are the outcomes worth pushing for. Note the ceiling though: judicial diversion under § 40-35-313 is unavailable for any Class A or Class B felony, so at the top two tiers in the table above that route is closed and the fight moves to the charge itself.
Veterans Facing a Financial Charge
For a veteran working in defense contracting, federal service, law enforcement or any cleared position, a dishonesty allegation is a hard category to be in. Financial conduct and personal candor are both explicit adjudicative criteria, and the process can begin on an allegation rather than a conviction.
Austin is a veteran. He understands what an adjudicator is looking at, and he treats the clearance problem and the criminal case as one problem rather than two, because decisions made in the criminal case drive what happens in the other one.
Veterans Defense OptionsDishonesty and Clearance
Financial conduct and candor are weighed heavily in clearance adjudication. Avoiding the conviction is the whole objective.
Veterans Treatment Court
Davidson County runs a dedicated Veterans Treatment Court. Participation comes as a condition of probation or through a diversion program, depending on the case.
Restitution Handled Properly
Repayment can help a negotiation. Done without counsel, it can read as an admission and follow you into every other proceeding.
Why Clients Hire Austin as Their Nashville White Collar Crime Attorney
He Takes The Pre-Charge Call
A target letter, a subpoena or a request for an interview is the moment to call, not the moment to explain. That first conversation is free.
The Number Gets Challenged
The State's loss figure is an accountant's construction. Moving it moves the class of the offense and, in federal court, the guidelines range.
Your License Is Part Of The Case
A board matter, a clearance review and a criminal charge are one problem. Strategy that ignores the other two is not strategy.
Nashville White Collar Crime FAQ
Is embezzlement a separate crime in Tennessee?
No. Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-14-101 consolidated embezzlement, false pretense, fraudulent conversion, larceny and receiving stolen property into a single theft offense. Conduct people describe as embezzlement is charged as theft and graded by the dollar amount alleged, from a Class A misdemeanor at $1,000 or less up to a Class A felony at $250,000 or more.
My employer's lawyers want to interview me. Should I go?
Not without your own attorney. Company counsel represents the company, not you, even when everyone is friendly and the meeting is framed as routine. Their notes can end up with a prosecutor. Talk to your own lawyer before you agree to a date, not after the interview.
If I pay the money back, does the case go away?
Not automatically. The case belongs to the State and repayment does not undo the offense. Restitution genuinely does help in negotiation, and combined with a clean record it is often part of what makes a better outcome realistic. But how and when money moves matters, because a repayment made without counsel can be characterized as an admission. Do it deliberately, with advice.
Why is a small forged check a felony?
Because forgery has a floor. Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-14-114 punishes forgery as theft by value, but says it can never be less than a Class E felony. A $50 forgery is a felony, while a $50 theft is a Class A misdemeanor. The amount does not rescue it.
Could my case be charged federally instead?
It can. Almost any financial case involves a wire, which opens the door to federal wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1343. That statute carries up to 20 years, and up to 30 years with a fine up to $1,000,000 where the offense affects a financial institution or relates to a presidentially declared disaster or emergency. Knowing which direction an investigation is heading should come before any decision about cooperating or making a statement.
What is money laundering doing on my indictment?
Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-14-903, money laundering is not graded by dollar amount. The core offenses at subsections (a), (b) and (c) are Class B felonies whatever the sum. Prosecutors add the count when funds moved between accounts after the alleged offense, and because the class is flat it can be more serious than the underlying theft. A narrower business-entity provision at subsection (d)(1) is a Class E felony punishable by fine and forfeiture only, so which subsection is charged matters.
Will a charge affect my professional license?
Frequently, and often sooner than people expect. Some Tennessee licensing boards require reporting on a charge or a plea rather than waiting for a conviction, and where that applies the deadline is usually short. The rule varies by board, so it is worth checking yours early. A board proceeding can move on its own schedule alongside the criminal case, which is why the two have to be handled together.
How long does a white collar case take?
Longer than most charges. Document review, forensic accounting and expert analysis all take time, and these cases carry more of each than a typical felony. That is hard to live with, and it is also time the defense uses, because the investigation and the accounting work run during it.