Documents from a car sale forged into a land deed belonging to a deceased resident has prompted legislators to draft augmented notary requirements, which passed in the House this week. House Bill 2920, sponsored by Rep. Jimmy Tokioka, D-15th District,
Documents from a car sale forged into a land deed belonging to a deceased resident has prompted legislators to draft augmented notary requirements, which passed in the House this week.
House Bill 2920, sponsored by Rep. Jimmy Tokioka, D-15th District, seeks to augment paper trails to make it more difficult for identity thieves to forge documents, he said.
Though the bill was authored by Tokioka, the issue was brought to his attention by Luis Soltren, whose friend, John Elwin, was murdered in 2006.
Known by Elwin as Hank Jacinto, the identity theft suspect was tried and convicted as Henry Ponce Jacinto Calucag Jr. He was sentenced in Honolulu Circuit Court in September on eight felony counts stemming from defrauding Elwin, and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Jurors found Jacinto had forged a warranty deed from a Land Rover sale to claim title to Elwin’s Kaua‘i property valued at $265,000. They also found Jacinto had illegally used Elwin’s credit cards to purchase polo equipment, weeks after he died.
Tokioka said, had this legislation been in place before, it would have been more difficult for Jacinto to have stolen Elwin’s land.
“This bill is not going to stop identity theft in every situation, but it certainly is going to help curtail it from happening again,” Tokioka said.
The legislation crossed over to the Senate after it had unanimously passed the house in less than an hour, which, according to the Hawai‘i Legislature Web site, is scheduled for review today.
Tokioka said though legislators have typically preferred to keep identity theft law packaged together, it wasn’t difficult to garner House support for the bill, as it required no cost, but merely the adding of a line itemizing the transaction that would require an additional notarized seal.
Under the bill, each time a Hawai‘i notary public notarizes a document, the notary public must record the type, date and time as well as document the signature, printed name and address of each person whose signature is notarized.
The bill also states all copies or certificates granted by the notary must be under the notary’s hand, to better ensure they’re not altered with material that does not relate to the document for which the seal was originally applied. In addition, it authorizes the attorney general to adopt rules to prevent fraudulent use of notarized documents.
Should the bill pass the Senate, it would go to the governor for signing July 1.
• Amanda C. Gregg, assistant editor/staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or agregg@kauaipubco.com.
