From False Documents to False Markets: Fraud and Forgery Offenses Compared

Forgery requires both a false making or alteration and an intent to defraud, which separates it from an honest mistake. In England and Wales and Northern Ireland it is an offence under section 1 of the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981, and document examination is the main forensic tool for proving it.

Counterfeiting reproduces a whole item or protected mark rather than falsifying one document. In the United States, fraudulent creation or alteration of currency is prosecuted under 18 U.S. Code section 471, with a maximum of twenty years imprisonment.

Mail fraud is defined by the use of the postal system in furtherance of a scheme to defraud, not by the kind of scheme. The federal statute is 18 U.S.C. Section 1341, and a conviction carries a fine and imprisonment of up to 20 years, or both.

Wire fraud applies the same deception requirement to electronic communications. It is a federal crime in the United States, first codified in 1952, and federal courts list its essential elements as voluntary and intentional participation in a scheme to defraud and intent to defraud, among others.

Insurance fraud is any duplicitous act performed with the intent to obtain an improper payment from an insurer. Here the victim is a particular institution, and the US federal statute on defrauding a health care benefit plan, Section 1347 of Title 18, shows how the offense extends into health coverage.

Securities fraud is the misrepresentation or omission of information to induce investors into trading securities. In the United States the broadest federal antifraud measure is Rule 10b-5, promulgated under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Insider trading is trading a public company's securities on material nonpublic information. Section 16(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 separately prohibits short-swing profits from purchases and sales within any six-month period by corporate directors and officers.

Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes, often by deliberately misrepresenting the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities. In the United States, federal conviction can carry fines and up to five years in prison on each count.