Fraud and Criminal Impersonation
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Fraud and Criminal Impersonation
Defending criminal offenses involving fraud, forgery, or other deceptive acts, such as identity theft or criminal impersonation, can be particularly involved as these offenses by their very nature usually arise from documentary transactions. Fraud, very generally, simply means that the defendant used some form of deception in order to obtain something of value. While there is not a criminal offense of fraud per se, many criminal offenses involve fraud, such as fraudulent use of a credit card, fraudulently cashing the check of another or cashing a check knowing there are insufficient funds to cover the amount of the check, fraudulently representing the value of an item listed for sale, etc. In each of these types of offenses, it is crucial to obtain the necessary documents, records, and other evidence to establish why the “paper trail” leading to the defendant is either missing important evidence or that the investigator made erroneous conclusions from incorrect evidence.
In some circumstances, the fraud involves either a person’s own identity or someone else’s identity. In those cases, a person may be charged with forgery, identity theft, or criminal impersonation, all of which are felony offenses. Some minor cases of providing a false name or birthdate may only be charged as false reporting, which is a misdemeanor offense of simply providing false information to a police officer. However, if the offense involves consequences or potential consequences to another individual, generally the greater felony offenses will be charged.
As with other fraud offenses, a charge of forgery, identity theft, criminal impersonation, and even false reporting, requires the experience and skill to obtain all the necessary documents and records and conduct a thorough and detailed analysis of the records to establish a defense to the specific charge. At the Sarbaugh Law Firm, we understand the complexity of criminal offenses involving fraud and have the skill and experience to sort through each record, document, or other record to find the weakness in the prosecution’s case.