A guy purchases a business based upon numbers given to him by the seller. The seller inflates the numbers of the business with false numbers causing the purchaser to sign a bill of sale. The purchaser did no independent audit prior to the sale. It is possible that a former employee will testify that she was told to add certain accounts to the business that did not exist. The purchaser is out over $200K. Do you tell the purchaser to sue or do you prosecute for Securing Execution of Document by Deception?

[This message was edited by J. Lagomarsino on 06-21-06 at .]

The purchaser signed a bill of sale?

Sounds like he may have a good civil fraud case. And 32.46(a) is broad enough to convert most any civil fraud action (involving a "document affecting") into a crime. But, you have to be hesitant to do that where the victim assumed a lot of the risk and had some means of protecting himself. Guess it depends on how busy you are with other prosecutions and where you draw the line between "puffing" and statements of fact.