"Illegally Accessing Customer Information At U.S. Banks" characterized the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act as a U.S. bank secrecy law.  On the one hand, it and other bank secrecy laws around the world protect the privacy of bank customers entrusting financial information to banks.  On the other hand, bank customers can easily abuse these laws during a fraudulent asset concealment scheme.

To cite just one example, a New York divorcing husband might conceal marital assets in anticipation of an equitable distribution hearing, by transferring them out of New York into a secret Swiss bank account.  The divorcing husband may think the marital assets in his Swiss account will remain undetected because as a bank customer, he would ordinarily be protected by Swiss bank secrecy laws. 

Despite the existence of these bank secrecy laws, the divorcing wife could gather financial intelligence to conceivably identify the Swiss bank witness maintaining this Swiss account.  The divorcing wife would then be able to compel the Swiss bank witness to disclose the divorcing husband’s bank customer information, pursuant to the bank secrecy law exception outlined at "Foreign Bank Secrecy Laws & An Asset Search".

Through the above-described type of marital asset search, the divorcing wife can pierce the bank secrecy veil used by the divorcing husband in his fraudulent asset concealment scheme.  Under these circumstances, the divorcing wife would actually have a broad range of legal remedies available to her, as set forth by "An Asset Search In Geneva".

Copyright 2010 Fred L. Abrams