FIDUCIARY FRAUD, a branch of white-collar crime that has witnessed rapid growth since the 1980s, involves a breach of trust committed by financial institutions such as banks and savings and loans, insurance companies, financial service companies, and pension funds. Embezzlement by lowerlevel employees, still the most popular form of fiduciary fraud, has been overshadowed by the misdeeds of upper-level staff who mismanage and loot their own companies.

A fiduciary, commonly a trustee, possesses powers that normally belong to another person. As such, the fiduciary bears a legal obligation to act primarily for the client's benefit in financial matters[Page 318] and not for the fiduciary's own personal interest. Fiduciaries are duty-bound to always act in complete fairness and to not exert any influence or pressure, take selfish ...