Counterfeiting or Forgery

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Forgery includes a number of activities related to the signing, altering, making, or using of a written instrument. The instrument may be handwritten, printed, typed, or otherwise recorded. For example, someone could commit forgery by signing another person's name to a document with legal effect, such as a check, will, or contract. Someone could also commit forgery by writing a new will and passing the document as the will of another person. According to forgery and counterfeiting laws, the individual must have acted with an intent to defraud the victim for personal or financial gain.

In a case of forgery, a prosecutor must establish three elements by:

1) Identifying a written instrument;
2) Showing that the defendant made the written instrument, materially altered an existing written
instrument, or falsely signed a written instrument; and
3) Proving that the defendant acted with an intent to defraud.

Counterfeiting describes the unlawful imitation or duplication of documents and other items with legal significance. Most commonly, counterfeiting refers to the imitation of paper money or coins, but the crime can also involve checks, tickets for public transit, sports trading cards, and a variety of other items. As with forgery, the prosecutor must prove that defendant engaged in counterfeiting activities with an intent to defraud. In general, counterfeiting results in felony charges; however, California state law does permit a misdemeanor prosecution for the counterfeiting of specified items, such as transit tickets or sports trading cards.takeovers typically involve the criminal hijacking of an existing credit card account. Here an offender obtains enough personal information about a victim to change the account's billing address. The perpetrator then subsequently reports the card lost or stolen in order to obtain a new card and make fraudulent purchases with it.ome of these include government fraud, extortion, kickbacks, procurement fraud, the health care industry and employee benefits or pension plans, and many others. Each of these offenses will result in punishment or sentencing that reflects the severity of the actual crime that has been committed.

Counterfeiting or Forgery

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