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Bureaus join forces to crack down on fake certificates

By Cao Yin (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-06-16 08:55

BEIJING - Beijing Justice Bureau has begun cooperating with the municipal public security bureau to severely punish people who interfere with notarization orders and provide fake certificates, an official of the bureau said on Wednesday.

The two departments' cooperation, which aims to more effectively solve cases involving disturbances and fraud in the notarization field, was planned at the end of last year, said Xu Yan, the director of the public management office in the bureau.

Previously, the bureau paid less attention to such cases and did not communicate enough with public security bodies, providing opportunities for wrongdoers and lowering the chances of arresting law-breakers, said Xu.

However, with the fast development of the country's economy and increasing demand for notarization, the justice bureau started to attach importance to these cases and has joined with the municipal public security bureau to investigate them, he added.

Meanwhile, Tang Lei, an official responsible for notarization management at the justice bureau, said the main way for most wrongdoers to get certificates from notaries is by forging identification papers and providing fake material.

In April, a man surnamed Qiao came to Beijing Fangyuan Notary Public Office and applied for a certificate for his house, but a notary refused his application after discovering his marriage certificate had missing information and many details that were different from his identification papers.

Another case involved a man surnamed Zha who wanted to get a trademark right from an old woman in 2010. He asked the woman to pretend to be his mother and gave her a fake identification to deceive officers in Beijing's Chang'an Notary Office.

However, after the notaries realized his document was fake, Zha lay on the floor of the office and shouted for several hours. A staff member called the police and Zha eventually served an administrative detention.

"It is easier to deal with this kind of case by cooperating with public security bureau," Tang said, adding that the efficiency of crackdowns had also been improved.

Currently, marriage certificates, professional qualifications and identification materials are the most commonly faked notarization items in the capital, said Gao Ming, director of the transaction department of Beijing Notary Association.

"Citizens can distinguish the genuine certificate from the false one on the association's website," Gao said. "We will update relevant information promptly."

However, some citizens and lawyers still doubt the effect of investigating fake certificates in this way.

"Fake materials now are very much like authentic ones, which makes it difficult for the general public to distinguish between them," Li Chenguang, a 23-year-old worker at a telecom company, told China Daily.

"Besides, a few companies have rigid requirements in their recruitment, which forces some people to get fake certificates to get jobs," he added.

Qian Jun, a lawyer at Yingke Law Firm, said people who forged official seals or documents will face criminal punishment, but he added it is still difficult for police to arrest suspects who forge material in technically advanced ways.