Falsehood: more present than you imagine

The mercantile life of the companies is registered in Minutes. Do the Minutes constitute a real danger to the people who sign them and are not experts in Law?

But, when is the crime of forgery in a commercial document really committed? Let´s try to simplify what the commission of this crime involves.

According to the Supreme Court, the incrimination of false conducts. It finds its raison d’être in the need to protect public faith and security in the legal traffic. Avoiding the access to civil and commercial life of false evidentiary documents. That can alter the legal reality in a way that is detrimental to the affected parties. Examples are SCSS 349/2003; 845/2007; 1028/2007; 377/2009 and 165/2010, among others.

And also the Supreme Court has established, contemplating the legal property from a functional perspective. That when examining the modification, variation or falsehood of the content of a document. The functions that constitute its “raison d’être” must be taken into account, paying attention above all:

• The evidentiary function, insofar as the document has been created to prove something, and
• The guaranteeing function, insofar as it serves to ensure that the person identified in the document is the same person. That he/she has made the statements attributed to him/her in the document itself. As for example in SCSS 1561/2002; 845/2007 and 165/2010, among many others.

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Thus, a falsehood is committed, for example:

1. When it is certified that the Minutes are signed by all the Partners or Directors (as the case may be) and they really are not because some signature is missing.  The certification could be made by:

• Secretary and Chairman of the Board
• Sole Administrator,
• By any of the Joint Administrators
• Or by the Joint Administrators

2. When a document is manipulated by simulating a signature.

3. When an agreement is certified that:

• Was not adopted,
• Was not adopted with the majority indicated,
• Was not agreed in the terms that are stated, etc.

4. When an agreement is certified with a text that is later denied by one of the attendees (whose signature is not recorded).

By way of conclusion, we must say that these crimes are consummated with the mere execution of the forged act. It is not necessary for the document to have entered in any way into the legal traffic.

If this article has been of interest, we also suggest you to read the following article published on our website:

Crime of documentary falsification (forgery)