When a Syracuse city budget director noticed last spring that revenue was down from parking garages, the city launched an audit of the garage operator and announced that the company was fraudulently withholding money.

More than six months later, no fraud charge has been filed in the case. However, Syracuse police reportedly began an investigation into the matter last week and Mayor Stephanie Miner said that she has handed over evidence to the district attorney.

In the spring, the budget director noticed that annual revenue was down about $345,000. Other than this fact, news reports about the accusations do not indicate what exactly prompted the city to allege fraud on the part of the garage operator. An audit, commissioned by the city, did reportedly suggest the garage operator was engaged in fraudulent activity.

The city has three different companies involved in operating its city-owned garages, but only one has been accused of fraud.

In white collar crime cases, such as this, it is often best to contact a criminal defense attorney even before charges are filed. These types of cases can be difficult to prove because there is often a very complicated trail of transactions involved. It is important to work with an attorney so that the accused person or company offers the appropriate level of participation to offer police and prosecutors during the investigation. In this case, and in many cases, the accused person knows that he or she is under investigation long before an arrest or the filing of charges.

Source: Syracuse.com, "Syracuse mayor accuses garage operator of fraud," Tim Knauss, Jan. 13, 2012