przestępstwo przeciwko wiarygodności dokumentów

11:55 Aug 12, 2013 

… the (bond) warehouse is to be operated, in Poland as well, I’d try and check what the exact wording is in the Penal / Criminal Code for such an offense. Most likely the Code has been officially translated into EN, so we can find the formal definition of what is “falsification of documents / document forgery / fraudulent alteration of documents / tampering with a document resulting in the loss of authenticity thereof,” etc. and use it in the translation.

Fully concur with Lukasz on the account of how to best translate the term "przestępstwo" into EN: not an easy task, indeed...

11:24 Aug 12, 2013 

Polish 'offences' cover both misdemeanors and felonies, in American terms. 'Przestępstwo' (German: Tatbestand) covers every criminal offence which is not a 'wykroczenie', and 'wykroczenie' is a pretty criminal infraction that doesn't rise to the more serious misdemeanor level. This gets more problematic for an English-speaking jurisdiction in which speeding tickets are full-blown misdemeanors, though.

Felony, though, is an offence, except a very serious offence. Like squares are still rectangles, just very special rectangles.

Also, when you talk about 'felonies' in reference to the Polish system, that is taken to mean 'zbrodnie', which are the more serious criminal offences for which the sentencing limit is no less than 3 years. While in the U.S. and elsewhere under common law felonies sometimes start from 1 year in jail, you can't really call 1-year offences felonies in respect of the Polish system.