Fake news in accounting: ex-president Trump convicted of forgery
American politics has hit a new low since May 30, 2024. Indeed, ex-President Donald Trump was convicted that day by a popular jury for, among other things, forgery.
More specifically, Donald Trump, through an intermediary (who acted as a key witness in the criminal case), has had hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels. The goal: to safeguard his 2016 election campaign from negative publicity.
It didn't stop there, however. Trump also had the amount recorded in his accounts as legal fees; a form of forgery, according to the prosecution and now so according to the jury.
But what exactly is that, "forgery in writing"? In this contribution, we will take a closer look at it.
Forgery
As for the constituents of the crime of "forgery," it should be noted that such a crime exists when four constitutive constituents are present.
First, there must be a falsification of the truth (1).
Counterfeiting can be either material or intellectual, where "material" refers to tarnishing the writing itself (i.e. a document is forged) and "intellectual" refers to altering the content of a writing, either by omitting information or inserting false information.
Second, the falsity must be capable of causing moral or material harm (2).
Third, the forgery must be committed in a writing protected by law and in a manner specified by law (3).
As for legally protected documents, it should be noted that authentic and public writings as well as commercial, banking or private writings are protected by law.
Regarding the ways defined in the law, for example, the placing of a false signature can be considered a prohibited way in which a forgery can be committed.
However, it should be emphasized in this one that the Supreme Court has held that "the formal forgery of a signature alone, as such is not necessarily and inevitably a criminal forgery, when the other constitutive elements of the crime are absent or unproven, in particular fraudulent intent or intent to harm“.
Other ways provided by the law include: (i) forgery or counterfeiting of writings or signatures, (ii) falsely drafting or subsequently inserting into deeds contracts, orders, commitments or debt releases, and (iii) adding or falsifying stipulations, statements or facts to deeds.
In any case, the writing or altered data must impose itself on the public trust before forgery can occur. The person to whom the writing is presented must - in other words - be able to be convinced of the veracity of the document.
Finally, there must be fraudulent intent or intent to harm (4).
The fraudulent intent refers to the perpetrator's objective of obtaining an unlawful advantage or gain for himself or another person. This is an advantage or gain that would not have been obtained or would have been much more difficult to obtain if the writing were truthfully written.
The intent to harm, on the other hand, presupposes that the perpetrator intends to cause harm to another through forgery, regardless of whether he will actually succeed in doing so.
Whether all these requirements would also have been met in the case of ex-President Donald Trump would lead us too far, also because we do not have the full record.
Whether all of these requirements are met in the case you are involved in, we would be happy to review them with you.
In case you have questions about the crime of forgery, contact us at info@bannister.be or by calling 03 369 28 00!
