Forgery, or the common law crime of the falsification of a document, signature, or banknote, is covered under a number of statutes in Massachusetts law. In Massachusetts the Commonwealth must prove four things to establish that a forgery occurred.If convicted of forgery, it carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison or 2 years in jail. Forgery may not be a violent offense, but it does have victims. In Massachusetts, forgery is aggressively prosecuted and is a very serious crime.