At "An Asset Search, Tax Fraud & Divorce ", I described a conversation I had with Brian– a former IRS Special Agent who had also once been a high-ranking official at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. In that conversation, Brian suggested that a broad range of criminal statutes were sometimes relevant to a tax
Asset Search/Fraud Investigation
Computer Forensics & An Asset Search
By Fred Abrams on
The divorcing spouse was suspected of hiding marital assets & the divorcing spouse’s personal computer may have contained secret financial information. The divorcing spouse had removed this computer from the marital residence in anticipation of the divorce. In this situation, a forensic examination of the divorcing spouse’s computer might help.
If given physical access to…
A Tax Fraud & Identity Theft From Miami
The following occurred over a four month period during 2002, and has been supplied by an investigator I have worked with. Some of it has been changed / sanitized for privacy reasons:
The Tax Fraud
As part of his tax fraud, “Mr. Wallace” contacted a Cayman Island bank by mail in order to open…
Offshore Bank Accounts In Liechtenstein
By Fred Abrams on
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has disseminated a list with about 1400 suspected tax cheats on it, all of whom maintained offshore bank accounts through Liechtenstein’s LGT Group. As the CNBC article “Europe Tax Evasion Probe Going Global” mentioned, an LGT employee stole the list in 2002 and eventually sold…
Hiding / Smuggling Cash
By Fred Abrams on
Posted in Asset Search/Fraud Investigation, Money Laundering
Nathan Vardi’s Forbes.com article "Cash Is King", describes some of the ways funds can be transferred during money laundering:
- Wire Transfers
- Credit Cards
- Prepaid Cards
- Digital Currency (i.e. E-Gold)
- Cash
"Cash Is King" also briefly quotes me and mentions that cash is hard to trace. Illicit cash can of course still be detected…
Divorce, RICO & An Asset Search
By Fred Abrams on
When an asset search uncovers that a divorcing spouse or ex-husband may be fraudulently hiding assets, it can lead to a civil RICO case. Plaintiff Christa Ritter’s asset search of her ex-husband for example, ended in the filing of such a RICO case in Ritter v. Klisivitch et. al., Index # 2:06 CV 05511,…
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act & An Asset Search
By Fred Abrams on
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) at 15 U.S.C. § 6801 et. seq., protects the privacy of customers who provide information to U.S. financial institutions. Although there are some important exceptions mentioned at 15 U.S.C. §6821(c) – (g), GLBA restricts access to “nonpublic personal information” like bank account numbers, account balances, etc. In some cases,…
An Asset Search In Israel
By Fred Abrams on
Posted in Asset Search/Fraud Investigation, Money Laundering
Given news reports like the September 27, 2007 Reuters’ article about money laundering in Israel, I am never surprised when an asset search reveals that a bankruptcy debtor, a divorcing spouse or other person has washed money through Israel. In one case for example, (the facts of which have been sanitized / changed herein), the…
Bearer Shares & An Asset Search
In the recent past, bearer shares especially allowed for anonymous corporate ownership. A corporation that issued bearer shares had no central registry of the bearer share ownership. As a glossary from the The Financial Action Task Force explains, “[b]earer shares refers to negotiable instruments that accord ownership in a legal person to the person…
An Asset Search, Tax Fraud & Divorce
By Fred Abrams on
The information supplied by foreign financial investigators indicated the divorcing husband had hidden marital assets offshore. Evidence gathered during the divorce also suggested that the husband might have committed a tax fraud in hiding the marital assets.
To try to detect any additional assets hidden by the husband, I contacted Brian. Brian was a former…