Asset Search/Fraud Investigation

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This is the ninth post in the “Divorce & Hidden Money” series.  By failing to disclose any offshore assets, one divorcing spouse may cheat the other out of child support, alimony or other court awards.  A spouse cheated this way might however, file requests for judicial assistance, (a.k.a. requests for legal assistance, letters of request, or letters rogatory), in a foreign country to collect evidence from witnesses residing there.  

Evidence collected from the foreign witnesses may prove a divorcing spouse concealed bank accounts, businesses, real estate or additional assets offshore.  The post highlights a request for judicial assistance in the U.S. filed by Helga Glock, (“Ms. Glock”), former wife of billionaire Gaston Glock, (“Mr. Glock”), inventor of the Glock pistol.   It features a January 31, 2010 letter Mr. Glock allegedly wrote to his family discussing his plans for them.  The post also discusses accessing Swiss bank account information and updates Helga Glock Claims Gaston Glock Started Concealing His Assets, published January 1st.    

THE LETTER TO MR. GLOCK’S FAMILY

After her divorce from Mr. Glock in Austria on June 27, 2011, Ms. Glock made a  March 18, 2013 request for judicial assistance, (“the Request”),  in the case called In Re: Application of H.M.G., Index No. 13-cv-02598.  The Request included a January 31, 2010 letter, (“the Letter”), Mr. Glock allegedly wrote to his family.  If genuine, the Letter gives a glimpse of Mr. Glock’s dealings with Ms. Glock and their children who worked in the family’s gunmaking business.  The Letter mentioned “the Privatstiftung”, a trust/Austrian private foundation Mr. Glock, Ms. Glock and others reportedly set up as co-settlors.  Some of the key points Mr. Glock allegedly made at the Letter were:

  • “In 1999 I decided to restructure the Glock Group and secure it for all succeeding generations to come through the  Privatstiftung (trust).”

  • “I guarantee the agreed upon payments to the beneficiaries for a lifetime.  I therefore expect appreciation, compliance and acceptance and the respect I deserve as a father.”

  • “I am working on a ‘Glock code of conduct’ which will be implemented and will require all employees and family who access the benefits to adhere to.”

  • “I will not allow any interference with my life long business endeavors.  Therefore, all employed family members will withdraw from the company’s operations.”

(Click On The Image To Read The Letter & Its English Translation)

 


Continue Reading Divorce & Hidden Money: Helga Glock’s Search For Gaston Glock’s Assets

Identifying and immobilizing assets in a timely fashion can be paramount to asset recovery cases ranging from an ultra- high net worth divorce to a forced collection proceeding against a debtor.

The abstract about “Suspending Suspicious Transactions” ¹ similarly mentions the “timely identification and immobilization” of  assets.  The abstract discusses this with regard…

I will present my program “The Ins & Outs Of Recovering Assets Via Whistleblowers & Other Tipsters” in London at 11:40 AM June 23, 2014, during the Carmelite Chambers International Fraud & Asset Recovery Conference.   “The Ins & Outs Of Recovering Assets Via Whistleblowers & Other Tipsters” highlights how whistleblowers sniff out vast sums of money hidden through laundering and other asset concealment schemes.  I open the program by discussing the fact pattern of a divorcing husband hiding tens of millions of dollars from his wife and domestic tax authorities, by using shell companies, multiple jurisdictions, etc.

The program features Washington, DC attorney Jack Blum who will talk about the IRS Whistleblower Program.  Mr. Blum has been an expert witness for the U.S. Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service.  Mr. Blum additionally served as associate counsel, or assistant counsel, or special counsel to three U.S. Senate committees or subcommittees; and been quoted by or mentioned in thousands of newspaper and magazine articles around the world.

Since he resigned at the end of 2008, as “Of Counsel” to Baker & Hostetler’s Washington, DC office, Mr. Blum practices part-time for a select group of clients.  Just one of Mr. Blum’s clients is whistleblower Rudolf Elmer.  As described by “Swiss Banker Blows Whistle on Tax Evasion”, Mr. Elmer provided tips to the IRS, a U.S. Senate subcommittee and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, about suspected tax cheats with offshore bank accounts.  At a January 17, 2011 Frontline Club Press Conference, Mr. Elmer also supplied WikiLeaks with this same kind of information.  Mr. Elmer’s whistleblowing led to his criminal prosecution by Swiss authorities, on charges that he violated Swiss bank secrecy law.Continue Reading Carmelite Chambers International Fraud & Asset Recovery Conference

The search for the true identity of Bitcoin creator Mr. Satoshi Nakamoto is discussed by “Will the Real Satoshi Nakamoto Please Stand Up” and at a video:

Mt. Gox which was once the world’s largest Bitcoin currency exchange, is also in the news.  It made bankruptcy filings in Japan and the U.S. and reportedly lost virtual currency valued at $473 million.

Perhaps most important, is that Bitcoin and other virtual currency can be a major money laundering threat.  This is true because with anonymity, determined criminals may exchange their illicit monies for virtual currency.   As a USA Today editorial explains “drug dealers, tax cheats, money launderers and terrorists do have uses for such a currency. Bitcoin gives them a way to try to hide money or move it to places undetected.”

Moreover, a criminal’s hidden money would presumably be even harder to detect if that criminal used virtual currency like Bitcoin along with the kind of virtual office and internet bank mentioned at Wyomingcorporations.us.
Continue Reading Bitcoin & Other Virtual Currency As A Money Laundering Threat

The post “An Asset Search, Tax Fraud & Divorce” was first published at the Asset Search Blog on January 16, 2008.  It is republished below as the seventh post in the “Divorce & Hidden Money” series.  The post describes my investigation of a divorcing husband.  While I was the divorcing wife’s attorney, I discovered the husband had hidden money offshore in anticipation of the divorce.  I also suspected the husband concealed this money from the IRS in furtherance of a tax fraud.

If evidence of tax fraud is brought to the attention of a judge presiding over a divorce, the judge may report the fraud to the IRS.  When the divorcing husband admitted in his affidavit that he had not paid taxes, the judge in Hashimoto v. De La Rosa, 2004 slip op. 51081(Sup. Ct. N.Y. County, June 23, 2004) reported him to the I.R.S.  In Beth M. v. Joseph M., 2006 slip op. 51490 (Sup. Ct. Nassau County, July 25, 2006), the judge similarly reported a husband who testified during court proceedings that he had not filed tax returns for the years 1997 through 2001 and other times.

Some divorcing spouses meanwhile, directly tip the IRS about their spouse’s tax fraud.  The spouses supplying these tips may be eligible for a reward as participants in the IRS Whistleblower program.  It typically takes six or more years for an IRS whistleblower to collect any reward and a whistleblower can face many challenges.  More information about blowing the whistle is at the Reuters article Record $104 million reward boosts whistleblowing on tax cheats, which cites me; and the New York Times article The Price Whistle-Blowers Pay For Secrets.
Continue Reading Divorce & Hidden Money: Whistleblowing, Tax Fraud & Tipping The IRS

This is the sixth post in the “Divorce & Hidden Money” series.

“Four Ways Assets Can Be Secretly Transferred” mentioned methods some use to move assets across international borders.  My post regarding the 2011 divorce between Helga and Gaston Glock discussed additional asset concealment tools.  Any one or a combination…

Leonard Glenn Francis is a Malaysian national who is the CEO and owner of Glenn Defense Marine Asia, a general contractor to the United States Navy.   He is suspected of using Glenn Defense Marine Asia to defraud the Navy out of an estimated $20 million.  At a November 22, 2013 court filing, prosecutors argued that Mr. Francis “ has built a business empire based on defrauding the United States.”

Mr. Francis is accused of  fraudulently billing the Navy while supplying its ships with marine husbanding services (i.e. fuel, tugboats, food etc.).  Mr. Francis supposedly also bribed senior Naval officials with cash, lavish travel and the service of prostitutes.  These Naval officials are thought to have provided Mr. Francis with secret information about criminal investigations into him; and / or they allegedly disclosed confidential defense procurement information.

The Washington Post reported that the possible involvement of two admirals in the alleged public corruption scheme, “makes the crisis the worst to tar the Navy since the 1991 Tailhook scandal, when a convention of naval aviators sexually assaulted scores of women.”  A September 12, 2013 complaint filed in one of three criminal cases pending against Mr. Francis, included purported e-mails.  They were allegedly sent from April 27 to May 21, 2012, between Mr. Francis and a codefendant, Mr. John Bertrand Beliveau, Jr.  Mr. Beliveau has been employed as a Special Agent by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service since about 2002 and his purported e-mails are set forth below.

Continue Reading Mr. Francis Supposedly Built A Business Empire By Defrauding The US

In 2010, German customs police discovered that Mr. Cornelius Gurlitt had travelled by train from Zurich to Munich with a large sum of cash.  A subsequent investigation revealed that Mr. Gurlitt reportedly failed to file tax returns.  Since Mr. Gurlitt was suspected of a possible tax fraud, a search warrant for his Munich apartment was issued.  Reuters, the Daily Mail, and The Economist explained that during the execution of the search warrant, approximately 1400 paintings were discovered stashed in the apartment.

As Germany Says 590 Artworks in Munich Haul May Be Nazi Loot suggests, some of these paintings will be the subjects of Holocaust-era art restitution claims filed by the heirs of Jewish art collectors.  Raymond Dowd, Esq. handles these kinds of claims.  Mr. Dowd tried Bakalar v. Vavra, Index No. 05-CV-3037 (S.D.N.Y.), the first Nazi-era art case ever to go to trial in federal court.  He also lectured widely on Nazi-era art restitution cases, including at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel; the Jewish Museum, Berlin, Germany; The Prague Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets, Czech Republic; the New York State Bar Association and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.Continue Reading Stashed Paintings Bring Issue Of Art Restitution To The Forefront

This is the second post in the “Divorce & Hidden Money” series:

A divorcing spouse may combine a number of elements in one scheme to hide marital assets.  Bearer shares can be one of these elements, as more fully set forth at my post Bearer Shares & An Asset Search.  Bearer shares…