Crimes Committed During an Official Investigation: Forgery and Fabricating Evidence

Recently, an ex-official of a county government in Tennessee was accused of forgery and fabricating receipts during an official investigation into county expenditures. Since many news sources only name the crimes for which a suspect has been charged, this blog entry briefly outlines the substantive law applicable to these white collar crimes.

Forgery - Under T.C.A. § 39-14-114, a person commits a Class E felony if he or she forged a “writing” and did so with the intent to defraud or harm another. A common scheme occurs when an employee uses a company credit card or account for personal expenditures and then creates fake receipts to make it look like the expenditures were used for company purposes.

Fabricating Evidence - A more serious crime, under T.C.A. § 39-16-503, a person commits a Class C felony if he or she alters a record with intent to impair the truthfulness of the record while an investigation or proceeding is taking place. Using the example above, a person would commit this crime if the company was currently under an official audit and, the defendant, with knowledge that the audit was taking place and with intent to prevent the audit from targeting him or her, forged the receipts.

To learn more about white collar crimes , please visit the Baker Associates Tennessee criminal defense website.