I remember watching on Dateline or some show like that where they registered a litter of kittens as golden retrievers (or something close to that). Puppy mills use AKC certificates for dogs that aren't even in the litter or purebred sometimes.

So an AKC certificate is not a guarantee of a high qualitly dog, or even a purebred dog in some cases. Maybe one could be created on the computer, or stolen, it's possible.