White Collar Crimes: Falsified Financial Documents

 Posted on November 03, 2015 in White collar crime

Falsifying financial documents can take many forms: falsifying tax returns, bank statements, financial records, accounting documents, earnings reports, securities information, income statements, signatures, and checks are all actions that are meant to deceive the recipient of the falsified document into believing one thing, when the truth is another. These types of white collar crimes constitute deception-based crimes, which take advantage of someone else for personal financial gain.

Forgery

Under 720 ILCS 5/17-3, a person is guilty of committing forgery if he or she knowingly makes a false document or alters a document to make it false with the intent to defraud someone such that the forged document is capable of defrauding another. Forgery can including knowingly giving someone a forged document, with the intent to defraud the recipient, or simply being found in possession of a forged document with the intent to deliver the forged document to someone, with the intent to defraud.

Forgery is generally a Class 3 felony; however, if the forgery is of a coin or an academic degree, it is a Class A misdemeanor, but if the forgery is of a Universal Price Code Label, it is a Class 4 felony.

Tax Fraud

Tax fraud is another common white collar crime that often involves the falsifying of financial documents in an effort to decrease the amount of state or federal taxes that are owed to the government. While no one ever wants to pay more in taxes than they have to, every person has a legally imposed tax obligation that they are required to pay. Of course there are a number of deductions, tax credits, and tax breaks that eligible individuals may take advantage of, and when these benefits are calculated and accounted properly there is no problem.

However, some people might under-represent their earnings, fail to include or document a large transaction, or might forget about a large monetary “gift” they received during the year, and fail to report it for tax purposes. For example, knowingly evading the payment of any sales tax owed to the State of Illinois is a felony crime under 35 ILCS 120/13(b), and the seriousness of the penalties for this offense depend upon the total amount of sales tax that was not paid. These types of actions are fraud if the person who does them does so with the intention of defrauding the tax authorities.

But that is not to say that making a mistake on your taxes is the same thing as tax fraud. Filing your taxes is complicated and requires filling out a lot of different forms and schedules, and people are bound to make mistakes. A mistake could be a valid defense to tax fraud criminal charges if there is proof that an error was made.

Call the Law Offices of Christopher M. Cosley

If you have been charged with a white collar crime, such as forgery or tax fraud, it is important that you need to get into contact with a Rolling Meadows criminal defense attorney immediately in order to preserve and protect your rights. Call the Law Offices of Christopher M. Cosley at 847-253-3100 for help today.

Sources:

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=072000050K17-3

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=003501200K13