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
This is the eighth post in the “Divorce & Hidden Money” series. Like “Four Asset Concealment Tools” and “Four Ways Assets Can Be Secretly Transferred”, the post reveals methods a spouse may use to hide marital assets and keep more than his/her fair share of the marital estate.
Credit/Debit Cards- Using a credit or debit card which draws from a secret foreign bank account is one way divorcing spouses can secrete and/or launder assets. This method is so common that the IRS established its Offshore Credit Card Program to detect tax cheats maintaining undeclared foreign accounts.
A ‘Zebra’ Strategy (a.k.a Commingling)- A divorcing spouse may conceal marital assets by commingling them with business or other assets. This ‘zebra’ strategy of mixing assets, is mentioned by the article Cayman Bank Records Seized. The article discusses Germany’s recent seizure of records and says that some Coutts Trust Company customers “followed a ‘zebra’ strategy of mixing legally declared and taxed accounts containing smaller amounts with undeclared accounts containing larger sums.”
Asset Protection Services- One promotor of these services is Capital Asset, Inc. Its website claims that forming companies in Nevada, or Wyoming, or Delaware is preferable because: “Do you know that partnerships, corporations, LLCs in most states make you completely visible? If a judge can see your assets, he can seize them.” Divorcing spouses may hire a promotor of asset protection services to establish such companies which can then be used to open bank accounts or maintain assets with anonymity.
Continue Reading Divorce & Hidden Money: Four Methods Spouses Sometimes Use To Conceal Assets
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
This is the fourth post in the “Divorce & Hidden Money” series.
Mr. Gaston Glock’s creation of the ubiquitous Glock pistol turned him into a billionaire and he is thought to be one of the twenty wealthiest individuals in all of Austria. Mr. Glock’s ex-wife Ms. Helga Glock meanwhile, suspected he is concealing marital assets which could be connected to the couple’s 2011 Austrian divorce.
Ms. Glock therefore used civil law tools in an attempt to detect any marital assets / alleged hidden monies Mr. Glock supposedly possessed. The civil law tools Ms. Glock employed included: 1) her Swiss petition to freeze a UBS bank account reportedly maintained by Mr. Glock in Switzerland; and 2) the March 18, 2013 request for judicial assistance filed at In re application of: H.M.G., U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Index No. 13-cv-02598.
Ms. Glock’s March 7, 2013 affidavit filed at her request for judicial assistance, claimed Mr. Glock had earlier started hiding and moving personal and corporate assets in anticipation of the couple’s divorce. The March 7th affidavit discussed Ms. Glock’s belief that Mr. Glock was trying to transfer assets out of her reach; and that there had allegedly been a steady flow of assets out of Austria.
According to the affidavit, there were financial transfers to the above-mentioned UBS Swiss bank account and to bank accounts in Liechtenstein or Luxembourg. Also according to the affidavit, Mr. Glock had a Bermuda trust formed so that it could receive $51 million from “Glock”. The affidavit additionally referred to the “worldwide Glock Group structure” and indicated the structure was thought to be partially depicted by this chart:
This is the third post in the “Divorce & Hidden Money” series:
One divorcing wife explained to me that she believed her husband had hidden money in offshore bank accounts. This divorcing wife found a box her husband inadvertently left in the basement after he moved out of their marital residence. The box had an account opening application from one offshore bank and brochures from others.
Another divorcing wife found some correspondence at the family’s summer home. The correspondence was between her husband and the foreign attorney who helped establish the husband’s secret offshore bank accounts. A different divorcing wife found a scrap of paper on which her husband had scrawled the name of a Swiss banker and a Swiss financial account number.
The above-described matters raised the same question, how could these husbands secretly transfer funds across international borders into offshore bank accounts? Like narco-traffickers, tax evaders, terrorist financiers and others, divorcing spouses may use the following methods to secretly transfer assets:
Bulk Cash Smuggling– Determined criminals routinely smuggle cash through porous borders. Illicit cash couriers for instance, travel through Mexico-U.S. border crossings on behalf of Mexican drug cartels. German tax cheats are also known to smuggle undeclared cash into Liechtenstein by stashing the cash in luggage and then driving with it across the German-Liechtenstein border.
Portable Valuable Commodities Like Diamonds & Jewelry– After his arrest, Bernard Madoff seemingly tried to transfer watches, cufflinks and other jewelry worth more than $1 million. Madoff attempted to mail these items to friends and relatives. Bradley Birkenfeld the whistleblower, is believed to have similarly smuggled diamonds in a tube of toothpaste while on a jet flying across U.S.-Swiss borders.Continue Reading Divorce & Hidden Money: Four Ways Assets Can Be Secretly Transferred
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
This is the first post in the “Divorce & Hidden Money” series:
During ultra-high net worth divorces, one party can conceal vast sums of money from the other by going offshore. Stated differently, divorcing spouses may hide their wealth by utilizing cross-border elements, as money launderers do. The Financial Action Task Force
Throughout its five seasons, Breaking Bad highlighted the ways narco-trafficker Walter White and his co-conspirators hid the illicit proceeds of their made-for-TV crimes. Breaking Bad could even be considered a case study of how determined criminals and others hide assets. For example, at Problem Dog, Season 4, Episode 7, Walter and his wife Skyler faced the dilemma of trying to conceal $7 million in drug profits, by laundering it through their A1A Car Wash.
During Mandala, Season 2, Episode 11, Skyler’s boss Ted Beneke admitted to hiding nearly $1 million in undeclared revenue from the IRS. In furtherance of this tax fraud, Ted had cooked the books of his company, Beneke Fabricators. At Caballo Sin Nombre, Season 3, Episode 2, Walter’s partner Jesse Pinkman seemingly washed $400,000 through the cash purchase of his parent’s home. In Gliding Over All, Season 5, Episode 8, Skyler disclosed she rented a storage unit to conceal a hoard of cash. At the end of Crawl Space, Season 4, Episode 11, Walter was also shown next to some illicit cash he had earlier secreted beneath his house:
Continue Reading How Walter White Could Take His Money To A Swiss Bank
Seizing mob assets and tipping the SEC:
