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Falsifying Business Records in the Second Degree – New York Penal Law 175.05
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New York Law and Falsifying Business Records in the Second Degree
New York law protects the citizens of this state, including those who are working in the business world. A business in New York is required to abide by many laws, and it’s not always easy to learn the laws and what they mean. This is why so many businesses take the time and expend the effort to find a business attorney to represent their interests in any transaction. An attorney can help a business succeed in a legal capacity, and most business owners find an attorney to go over all their paperwork, their assets, and their business practices regularly to ensure they are in compliance with state laws.
What happens, though, when a business owner makes a decision to skirt the line a little and try to work the law in his or her favor? There are serious penalties for this kind of behavior, and it could result in jail time, fines, penalties, and even forced closure of a business when the businesses reputation is ruined. New York laws are strict regarding the act of falsifying business records, and that’s why you must learn what it means to falsify business records in the second degree.
Falsifying Business Records in the Second Degree
This type of crime is considered a Class A misdemeanor. It’s important to realize that just because it’s a misdemeanor and not a felony doesn’t mean you’re getting off light or not doing something entirely serious. It’s a crime, and a crime is always punishable by law. This type of misdemeanor typically means a business owner or employee is falsifying business records for personal gain. It might mean you’re spending time altering record so you don’t have to pay as much in tax, so you don’t have to spend as much money, and it might even be a way for you to avoid paying for insurance and even benefits for your employees. It’s a crime the state breaks down into several sections with several different situations.
Section One
This kind of misdemeanor crime is committed when you have the intent to defraud someone or another business by falsifying information. It occurs when you take the time make a false entry or use some other means to get someone else to make a false entry without their knowledge in any capacity of any business.
Section Two
This type of falsification includes the removal of anything pertinent to a business through business records. If you remove something from a business record as a way of defrauding the business, you are guilty in this section of New York law. It could be something as simple as removing evidence of a $5 sale to keep your taxes in a smaller bracket if that’s what it takes.
Section Three
When your business is running true to form, you’re required to take notes, make entries, and record the factual information for business purposes. If you decide to purposely leave out information such as this in the business records, you make the decision to create a misdemeanor crime.
Section Four
Much like the section three portion of this crime, this is one in which business information is not properly recorded. Unlike section three, this occurs when you make false statements that cause someone else to leave out information that’s imperative to the business records.
Call an Attorney
Whether you are guilty of falsifying records in the second degree or you are guilty of this because of the direction you took from someone else, you must call an attorney right away. There is nothing more dangerous than attempting to defend yourself in a situation like this one when you are not guilty of a crime or only committed it because of the information being given to you by others. Many people have no idea they are in on a crime when their direct supervisor or even their peers are providing them with false information.
Let an attorney help you go through the evidence, figure out what is going on, and help you prove you had nothing to do with this other than what you were told to do as a part of your job. If you do get arrested for this crime, you face fines, probation, and even prison time. If it’s discovered this was a crime committed to cover up an even larger crime, you also face felony charges that could land you in jail for many years. Call an attorney and get the help you need defending yourself against this class A misdemeanor in a New York Court of Law.