Forgery of documents in the Russian Federation is a criminally punishable act that entails the onset of serious liability for the person who committed it. At the same time, the list of documents, the forgery of which is prohibited by law, is quite wide.
The list of documents the forgery of which is a criminal offense, as well as the degree of responsibility for such an act, are established by the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, registered in the code of laws of our country under number 63-FZ of June 13, 1996.
Documents, forgery of which is prohibited
The list of documents for the forgery of which you can get a criminal penalty is given in paragraph 1 of article 327 of the Criminal Code. This section of the current legislation establishes that illegal production of stamps, seals, forms, certificates or other similar documents is recognized as a forgery. In addition, state awards belong to the same category, and not only those issued by the Government of the Russian Federation, but also those that were transferred to their rightful owners on behalf of the USSR or the RSFSR.
Punishment for forging documents
The degree of responsibility for the production of forged documents will differ depending on what goals the person who decided to forge pursued. So, if his goal was to evade his duties on the basis of a forged certificate or order, or, on the contrary, the enjoyment of any special rights due to the presence of a forged document, the punishment for such a person would be restriction of freedom, imprisonment or forced labor for up to two years. In addition, at the discretion of the court, arrest for a period of up to six months can be selected as a punishment.
If the documents were forged by the guilty person in order to hide another crime, the punishment will be more severe: it can be imposed in the form of forced labor or imprisonment for a term of up to 4 years.
Use of forged documents
In addition, it should be borne in mind that a criminal offense in our country is not only the production, but also the use of forged documents in the event that the person who used them knew in advance that they were forged. In this case, punishment in the form of compulsory labor for up to 480 hours, correctional labor for up to 2 years, or arrest for up to 6 months may be applied to the guilty person.
However, if the court deems it appropriate in this situation, a fine may be imposed on the culprit: its value can be determined either in absolute amount - up to 80 thousand rubles, or in relation to the income of the guilty person. In the latter case, he can be sentenced to pay a fine of up to 6 times his monthly income.
