Facts

# Forgery in Commercial Accounting and Completeness Declarations **Parties:** Appellant X. (Member of the Board of Directors and Chief Financial Officer of the A. Group), Public Prosecutor's Office, and Higher Court of the Canton of Aargau. **Facts:** The appellant X. was a member of the Board of Directors and Chief Financial Officer of the A. Group. A.-Finance AG granted a loan of CHF 12 million to B.-Holding. This loan was repaid after several extensions on March 31, 1992. The repayment was made through a term deposit advance from D.-Bank. The A.-Holding received the amount as a trustee, and a pledge of the term deposit investment as security for the credit was to take place, which, however, did not happen in a legally valid manner. At the end of May 1992, new loan agreements were created, and the loan amount was transferred back to the account of B.-Holding. The indictment accuses the appellant of not disclosing the pledge as a contingent liability in the annual financial statements and of making incorrect completeness declarations. The appellant was accused of committing forgery in connection with commercial accounting by not disclosing the pledge of the term deposit investment as a contingent liability and by making incorrect completeness declarations. According to Art. 251 SCC. 1 SCC, anyone who forges CO alters a document, uses another person's genuine signature CO genuine handwriting to create a false document, CO falsely records CO has recorded a legally significant fact, is guilty of forgery. Commercial accounting enjoys a guarantee of truth by law (Art. 957 CO). A false entry fulfills the offense of forgery if it paints a false overall picture of the accounting and thereby violates booking rules and principles that have been established to ensure the truth of the statement and thus the increased credibility of the accounting. The lower court correctly assumed that the intended pledge of the term deposit claim as a contingent liability had to be disclosed in the annual financial statements of A.-Finance AG and in the consolidated group financial statements. The omission of these bookings is to be qualified as forgery, as the annual financial statements as a whole showed a better picture than in reality. Regarding the…