Federal Crime of Forgery – 18 U.S.C. § 471
If you are facing forgery charges, it is crucial to obtain an experienced and aggressive federal defense attorney to fight on your behalf. A well-seasoned attorney can navigate the complex legal system, challenge the evidence against you, negotiate with the prosecution, and ensure your rights are protected. The penalties for forgery are severe, including a long-term prison sentence of 5 to 10 years and large fines of $10,000 to $25,000. Having a skilled attorney on your side can make all the difference in your case.
Forgery is defined as altering or making a public record or legal document for personal gain or to harm another. Depending on what was forged, the offense may be charged as a misdemeanor or a felony. The main thing is that the prosecutor must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you actually had the specific intent to defraud. This is where our federal lawyers step in and defend you!
18 U.S.C. § 471 states that whoever has the intent to defraud, falsely make, forge counterfeits, or alter any legal document or public governmental record shall be punished.
When it comes to federal forgery cases across the country, the feds usually do not get involved unless they involve sophistication, a large dollar amount, or some other crime.
For instance, some individuals were taking checks from attorneys' law firms and then impersonating the attorney, going into the bank, and forging their signature. It was an inside job. Thousands of dollars were lost. That's where the federal government will come in because it will take some sophistication to investigate the federal forgery charges and prove them. Other examples include forging government documents, altering financial records, or creating counterfeit currency.
A lot of time, they're going to need a handwriting expert to come in to match up the person they think is doing the federal forging to the attorney's signature and the signature placed in the bank. Obviously, if somebody is going in and claiming that they are another person and the bank has a video of them going in, and they're actually not that person, that would be good evidence as well.
But usually, I see the federal government become involved in a criminal matter related to forgery when there are large dollar amounts involved—thousands or even millions of dollars—and big companies involved losing money. Then, the feds feel like it impacts interstate commerce.
They feel like they should get involved in prosecuting the person, punishing them, and seeing that they get a lengthy federal prison sentence served out at 85%. 18 U.S.C. 471 defines the federal crime of counterfeit currency.
Developing an Effective Defense Strategy
So, if you have one of these federal forgery cases and some sophistication is involved or at least alleged, it's crucial to contact a defense attorney as soon as possible. We'll sit down and go over everything, including the evidence against you, your rights, and potential defense strategies. We'll get a strategy together, which may involve challenging the evidence, negotiating with the prosecution, or presenting mitigating factors. Sometimes, the strategy is that the government does not have the full picture, and we can use this to your advantage.
We have to give them the full picture so they'll even dismiss the case or lessen the charges and the specter they're looking at me in.
The other strategy sometimes is we need to pay them back. We need to negotiate with them and get ourselves in the best position not to serve prison time to get lesser charges or to serve the least amount of time possible. So, you can't in every case you're going to use the same defense or strategy because all cases are different. Sometimes, the evidence is strong.
Sometimes, the evidence could be stronger. Sometimes, it's not even clear, it's a grey area how strong the evidence is, and that's when we really need to sit down, flush everything out, go over it, and make some decisions because in these forgery cases, there can be a lot of enhancements that apply in addition to the Code you're going to be charged under and the base defense level that you're going to fall based on violating that Code section.
Other enhancements can apply, for example, the actual or intended loss. These are things that the government is going to look at. How much money did somebody lose based on the forgery? How much money were you trying to get?
Let's say you tried to pass through a million-dollar check, for example, but the check didn't go through — there would be no actual loss there. Still, the intended loss was a million dollars, and I don't think the government won't try and jack up your potential sentence because of that intended loss.
So, it gets a little complicated sometimes when you're talking about these federal forgery cases and being at challenge handwriting experts. I've had some big forgery cases where we've been very effective at challenging the handwriting expert — at least getting the judge to agree that the expert could not give the ultimate opinion on whether the signature belonged to a particular defendant.
They could certainly say if they saw similarities in the defendant's signature and the signature of the person who committed the crime. Sometimes, we even get our own expert on handwriting to try to counter the prosecutor's expert if the case is going to trial.
If you get arrested for forgery, you're going to be brought before a magistrate. You're either going to get out on some sort of bond conditions, whether it be a signature bond, a property bond, or some other related bond, or the Judge could find that you are a danger to the community. You're also a flight risk, and not let you out under any conditions.
In that case, you'd be in custody while your forgery case is pending, and then in the end, if you are found not guilty, you would get out. If you get a sentence, you would serve the sentence, and then you would get out.
These federal criminal forgery cases are serious. You need the best attorney to represent your interests, rights, freedom, and reputation.
Due to the life-altering consequences of a conviction of forgery, you must obtain an aggressive and well-skilled defense attorney to help you. Our federal criminal defense attorneys are well-versed and have the necessary knowledge of the laws of forgery. We guarantee our persistence and determination to get you the best possible results.
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