Counterfeiting of Legal Documents

MVHSMUN 2014

6th Legal

Counterfeiting of Legal Documents

Background

Counterfeiting (also known as Forgery) is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. In this case, we are dealing with the forgery of legal documents. Counterfeiting of legal documents can range from fraud all the way to counterfeiting currency. Fraud is also a key technique in Identity Theft. All legal documents are able to be successfully counterfeited (i.e. wills and trusts, tax forms, money, licenses, etc.) to some extent. Some are harder to counterfeit than others, but to prevent all counterfeiting there must be some kind of system in place to prevent it. In committee you should partially discuss how to prevent counterfeiting and primarily focus on the legal aspect and what to do after someone has been convicted for forging legal documents. In most cases, we are able to find out if something is real or not using the process of questioned document examination, but this takes time, effort, and most importantly, funds. This should not be used as a main means of protection against fraud but is proven to work as a last resort. The most skilled of counterfeiters know everything about what they are reproducing and should be able to get most of the notable details correct (i.e. currency counterfeiters know how to use the correct kind of papers, seals, and ink to pass most current counterfeit tests.).

Possible Solutions

You should focus on formulating a resolution focusing around the legal aspects of counterfeiting – how to determine whether or not something is counterfeit and how to prevent it from happening in the first place. As a Legal committee, you should also be conversing about how to deal with those who are convicted of counterfeiting or fraud.

Questions to Consider

These questions are not required to be answered directly in committee; however, they are meant to be used for your own research purposes and set a linear course for debate.

1. How is counterfeiting and fraud handled today in your country?

2. Do you believe it should be handled the same way in every single country, or be different for some countries?

3. How would one be able to prevent counterfeiting to happen in the first place?

Works Cited

"Counterfeit Currency and Security Documents." / Financial Crime / Crime Areas / Internet / Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2013.

< http://www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/Financial-crime/Counterfeit-currency-and-security-documents>

"Fraud." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Sept. 2013. Web. 25 Sept. 2013.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraud>