CHECK FORGERY AND FINANCIAL FRAUD

Check Forgery and Financial Fraud

Check Forgery and Financial Fraud

Introduction

In the following scenario, John Forge, brother of James has clearly committed a crime which falls under the category of check forgery and financial fraud (broken oral contract). Although both brothers had made a deal that the fraud would be compensated (John promised to pay $500.00 per month until the full amount was paid), still James vanished without paying the full amount.

Check forgery

As discussed above, the first crime comes under Check Forgery as James forged the signature of his brother. According to the law, check forgery of such types involves the forgery of either the check itself or the signature. In some cases, the check itself is a forgery, using either legitimate or fraudulent account numbers. In the given scenario, James stole his identical brother James', insurance settlement check of $7,500.00. The forged check must have been cleared by some check verification system as the legitimate account numbers was not declined for acceptance until the first forgeries was declined at the bank. (Geis, 1995)

If we analyze the statistics, we will come to know that in most of the cases, the persons attempting to pass forged checks have fraudulent identification in the name of the check account holder. In this case, fraudulent identification was of the brother. This type of forgery involves legitimate checks in which the signature or other information on the check is altered. In the given scenario, James stole the check book, the name of the account holder was written by him now attempting to use the stolen check. As per the Law, if a check that has already been filled-out has been stolen, the amount, payee, or payer can be forged, often removing any of the information through a check-washing process.

According to US Florida Law;

“Whoever falsely makes, alters, forges, or counterfeits a bank bill, check, draft, or promissory note payable to the bearer thereof, or to the order of any person, issued by an incorporated banking company established in this state, or within the United States, or any foreign province, state, or government, with intent to injure any person, commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.”

Analysis of the Law

How much money was to be gained through the forgery is the main factor in determining a penalty for the crime. A forgery that was intended to gain the forger thousands of dollars or more will carry much stiffer penalties than a forged $100 check. But even forgeries on a very small scale can be picked up by federal courts if they were done in more than one state, or on a document or instrument on a federal level, like a bond or security. (Wang, 1998)

American criminal law has 45 different statues, which cover such as fraud and forgery, as an experienced criminal lawyer that specialized knowledge is necessary to defend against charges of counterfeiting. The penalties for forgery can range from mild penalties like requiring ...