Facts

# Forgery of Documents through Factually False Invoices as Accounting Documents **Parties:** Public Prosecutor's Office of the Canton of Solothurn (appellant) against A., B., C., D. and E. (respondents). **Court:** Criminal Law Division of the Federal Supreme Court. **Date:** May 24, 2012. **Main Issue:** The respondents were accused of having created false invoices for deliveries and construction work in the years 1998 and 1999 at the instigation of F., the managing director of G. AG, which were actually intended for F.'s private property. These invoices were billed to G. AG and recorded in its accounting as profit-effective expenses to grant F. an unlawful advantage. **Previous Instance:** The District Court of Olten-Gösgen convicted the respondents of forgery of documents to conditional fines. The Higher Court of the Canton of Solothurn, however, acquitted them of the charge of forgery of documents but confirmed the acquittal of the charge of aiding and abetting tax fraud. **Appeal:** The Public Prosecutor's Office filed an appeal in criminal matters, requesting the annulment of the Higher Court's judgment and the referral of the case back to the previous instance for conviction of forgery of documents. **Legal Basis:** Forgery of documents under Art. 251 SCC. 1 SCC requires the forgery CO falsification of a document that is intended and suitable to prove a fact of legal significance. Invoices are generally not documents, but under certain circumstances, particularly as accounting documents, they can acquire the quality of a document. **Document Quality of Invoices:** The case law of the Federal Supreme Court confirms that invoices are only documents under special circumstances. Increased credibility and thus document quality can arise from the specific purpose of use, particularly when invoices are used as accounting documents in commercial accounting. This is the case when the invoice is objectively and subjectively intended to be part of the accounting. **Subjective Elements of the Offense:** The respondents acted with indirect intent, as they took into account the possibility that the invoices would be used as accounting documents. The intent to…