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BILL NUMBER:S6292A

TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the penal law, in relation to forged instruments and the sale thereof

PURPOSE OF THE BILL: Prohibits the sale of forged instruments.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS OF BILL: Section 1 amends penal law º 170.00 by adding new subdivision 9 defining the term sell.

Section 2 amends penal law by adding three new sections: (1) º 170.36, criminal sale of a forged instrument in the third degree, an A misdemeanor,(2) º 170.37, criminal sale of a forged instrument in the second degree, a D felony, and (3) º 170.38, criminal sale of a forged instrument in the first degree, a C felony.

Section 3 establishes the effective date.

JUSTIFICATION: The manufacture and sale of forged documents facilitate a broad array of serious ham1s locally, statewide and on a national level. These include relatively minor but socially damaging harms like public nuisance and quality of life violations, as well as indisputably grave ills such as identity theft and fraud, increased alcohol related fatalities among minors, and the evasion of detection by sex offenders, drunken drivers, and aliens with violent criminal records. Fake IDs have even played critical roles in a number of terrorist plots, some of which have been thwarted, others of which have ended in tragedy.

Over the past several years, multiple media outlets have published reports on the open sale of Fake IDs on the street comers of Roosevelt Avenue, tight in the heart of my district. This sort of open lawlessness is what prevents Roosevelt Avenue from realizing its potential as a thriving commercial area. Just recently, a group of Fake ID manufacturers and sellers based in lower Manhattan were charged with using forged government documents to misappropriate the identities of more than 180 New Yorkers and steal in excess of $1 million. In 2009, 45 New York minors died while driving drunk and another 279 were arrested for DUIs. Many, if not most, of those minors purchased alcohol using Fake IDs. Most chillingly, in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks it was discovered that all 19 hijackers had fraudulently obtained or fake Social Security numbers and 18 of the 19 possessed fraudulently obtained or phony driver's licenses or motor vehicle ID cards. There is no end to these stories.

While the dangers of false documents are obvious, there is a gap in the current law that needs to be fixed. Although the possession and forgery of a false instrument are clearly criminalized, there is no explicit prohibition against selling forged instruments. The foregoing legislation corrects this oversight by unequivocally making the sale of a forged document a crime under New York law.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: New Bill.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS: None noted.

EFFECTIVE DATE: This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law.

Text

STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________

6292--A
Cal. No. 968

IN SENATE

January 20, 2012
___________

Introduced  by  Sen. PERALTA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
  printed to be  committed  to  the  Committee  on  Codes  --  committee
  discharged  and  said  bill  committed  to  the  Committee on Rules --
  reported favorably from said committee, ordered to  a  third  reading,
  passed  by Senate and delivered to the Assembly, recalled, vote recon-
  sidered, restored to third reading,  amended  and  ordered  reprinted,
  retaining its place in the order of third reading

AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to forged instruments and the
  sale thereof

  THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  Section 1. Section 170.00 of the penal law is amended by adding a  new
subdivision 9 to read as follows:
  9. "SELL" MEANS TO SELL TO ANOTHER FOR CONSIDERATION.
  S  2.  The  penal  law is amended by adding three new sections 170.36,
170.37 and 170.38 to read as follows:
S 170.36 CRIMINAL SALE OF A FORGED INSTRUMENT IN THE THIRD DEGREE.
  A PERSON IS GUILTY OF CRIMINAL SALE OF  A  FORGED  INSTRUMENT  IN  THE
THIRD  DEGREE  WHEN, WITH KNOWLEDGE THAT IT IS FORGED AND WITH INTENT TO
DEFRAUD, DECEIVE OR INJURE ANOTHER, HE OR SHE SELLS A FORGED INSTRUMENT.
  CRIMINAL SALE OF A FORGED INSTRUMENT IN THE THIRD DEGREE IS A CLASS  A
MISDEMEANOR.
S 170.37 CRIMINAL SALE OF A FORGED INSTRUMENT IN THE SECOND DEGREE.
  A  PERSON  IS  GUILTY  OF  CRIMINAL SALE OF A FORGED INSTRUMENT IN THE
SECOND DEGREE WHEN, WITH KNOWLEDGE THAT IT IS FORGED AND WITH INTENT  TO
DEFRAUD,  DECEIVE  OR INJURE ANOTHER, HE OR SHE SELLS ANY FORGED INSTRU-
MENT OF A KIND SPECIFIED IN SECTION 170.10 OF THIS ARTICLE.
  CRIMINAL SALE OF A FORGED INSTRUMENT IN THE SECOND DEGREE IS A CLASS D
FELONY.
S 170.38 CRIMINAL SALE OF A FORGED INSTRUMENT IN THE FIRST DEGREE.
  A PERSON IS GUILTY OF CRIMINAL SALE OF  A  FORGED  INSTRUMENT  IN  THE
FIRST  DEGREE  WHEN, WITH KNOWLEDGE THAT IT IS FORGED AND WITH INTENT TO
DEFRAUD, DECEIVE OR INJURE ANOTHER, HE OR SHE SELLS ANY  FORGED  INSTRU-
MENT OF A KIND SPECIFIED IN SECTION 170.15 OF THIS ARTICLE.

 EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                      [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                           LBD14045-06-2
S. 6292--A                          2

  CRIMINAL  SALE OF A FORGED INSTRUMENT IN THE FIRST DEGREE IS A CLASS C
FELONY.
  S  3.  This  act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
have become a law.