The TV shanking of fictional lawyer Dan Wachsberger at Breaking Bad’s 54th episode. In the 53rd episode, Wachsberger hid monies in safety deposit boxes & became a DEA informant.
“Say My Name” is the 53rd episode of AMC’s Breaking Bad series & it showed fictional lawyer Dan Wachsberger hiding illicit
“UPDATE 1-Two more Swiss banks strike deals with U.S. over tax evasion” reported that the U.S. Department of Justice, (“the DOJ”), reached its 22nd agreement with Swiss banks. A DOJ press release mentions the agreements were pursuant to the Swiss Bank Program. The Swiss Bank Program “provides a path for Swiss
This is my 21st post in the Divorce & Hidden Money series. It is also the 8th post in my series describing what private investigators can and cannot do legally when searching for hidden assets. My July 13th post mentioned private investigators & their clients using law enforcement databases and illegal pretext calls to
This post discusses when federal prosecutors might initiate a criminal prosecution against private investigators and their clients as a consequence of an illegal asset search. It is the 7th post in my series covering private investigators.
If you are a divorcing spouse; heir under a will; a creditor; etc., you may hire a private
Determined criminals sometimes conceal their illicit cash by laundering it through banks located in multiple jurisdictions. Criminals are not the only ones concealing assets by using bank accounts in multiple jurisdictions. Whether you are a divorcing spouse; a creditor in a bankruptcy case; are collecting money owed on a judgment; etc., these ideas may
This video¹ discusses ways assets can be concealed via money laundering. As the video observes, billions are thought to be laundered worldwide & “laundering takes place within our everyday world of routine business transactions.”
Looking for laundered assets can be critical to a successful asset search, my last post says
This 17th post in the “Divorce & Hidden Money” series details how compelled consent forms are sometimes used to gather confidential foreign bank account records. In Doe v. United States, 487 U.S. 201, 108 S. Ct. 2341, 101 L. Ed. 2d 184 (1988), the Court talked about using these forms in connection
This post describes a case in which illicit drug monies were concealed offshore and laundered via a Cayman Island bank account. The case is also about tax fraud; identity theft and a murder. I published the post earlier at the Asset Search Blog and have used the post as a handout at many of my speaking engagements. It is an example of how financial fraudsters can operate. Some of the facts below have been changed/sanitized for privacy reasons. The following occurred over a four month period during 2002:
As part of his tax fraud, “Mr. Wallace” contacted a Cayman Island bank by mail in order to open a personal account with it. He mailed account opening documents to it which included a copy of his U.S. passport and also supplied the names of references. According to these documents, Mr. Wallace lived in Miami and was a real estate developer. Based upon all of the foregoing, the Cayman Island bank opened Mr. Wallace’s personal account with a “O” balance. Just six days later however, bank “X” in Panama wired $6.3 million to Mr. Wallace’s Cayman account without any mention of the remitter.
Mr. Wallace then went on a business trip to Central America for several months; so he rented his Miami home to “Chuck”. Although Mr. Wallace hadn’t known at the time, Chuck was a small-time crook. In fact, soon after Chuck took possession of Mr. Wallace’s home, Chuck started stealing Mr. Wallace’s mail. One of the letters Chuck had stolen was written by “Bob”, a personal banker from the Cayman Island bank where Mr. Wallace maintained his account. Bob had written to Mr. Wallace about a lucrative investment opportunity.
Surmising from Bob’s letter that Mr. Wallace had a sizable bank account, Chuck wrote to Bob pretending to be Mr. Wallace. As the sanitized copy of Chuck’s First Letter partly demonstrates, Chuck had assumed Mr. Wallace’s identity in that particular letter by forging Mr. Wallace’s signature. To comfort Bob, Chuck’s First Letter had also asked Bob for the minimum balance required to keep Mr. Wallace’s account open. Chuck’s “softening up” letter further suggested to Bob that Mr. Wallace’s funds might soon be needed “at very short notice” for an alleged real estate deal in Mexico. In the sanitized copy of Chuck’s Second Letter, Chuck again pretended to be Mr. Wallace as he wrote to Bob at the Cayman Island bank. In his Second Letter, Chuck directed the wire transfer of Mr. Wallace’s funds from the Cayman Island bank to Chuck’s own bank account in Mexico.
Continue Reading A Case of Tax Fraud, Identity Theft & Murder
This 14th post in the “Divorce & Hidden Money” series focuses on an ex-husband who lived offshore and had not paid child support or spousal maintenance for decades. In such situations, letters rogatory might be filed to help gather evidence about any assets hidden offshore. If assets are hidden offshore, another remedy may be filing a lawsuit alleging assets have been fraudulently transferred.
For thirty years the ex-husband in Janet O. v. James O., slip op. 51985 (Sup. Ct. N.Y. County, October 17, 2006) had not made one single child or spousal maintenance support payment. By living in places like Barbados, the Dominican Republic and Mexico, the ex-husband had offshore asset protection and could hinder enforcement proceedings brought for his ex-wife &/or their three sons. After the divorce, the ex-husband remarried and adopted his new wife’s two daughters. Meanwhile, his ex-wife and three sons were relegated to a life of hardship, poverty and public assistance.
One of their sons even had to quit college to become a construction worker to support the ex-wife. Likely to have little practical effect on the absconding ex-husband were: the seizure of New York bank accounts, income tax refunds and lottery winnings; the denial of new and renewed passports; driving license restrictions and the referral of cases for criminal prosecution. See generally N.Y. Dom. Rel. §§ 244; 244 (a) – (d) & 245, Family Court Act §§454, 458-a, 458-b & N.Y. Civ. Prac. L & R § 5241. Given the ex-husband’s default for decades, the Janet O. Court did however, indicate it would seek the ex-husband’s extradition.
Although it was not financially feasible for the above-mentioned ex-wife, a letter rogatory, (a.k.a legal assistance request or letter of request), might have helped her situation. In some cases, letters rogatory can be effective against a divorcing spouse or non-custodial parent hiding assets offshore. By filing letters rogatory, one may search for secret bank accounts &/or collect financial evidence from witnesses residing offshore. Letters rogatory are often sought pursuant to The Hague Convention, Taking of Evidence (1970) No. 20.¹ A New York court may issue a letter rogatory to a foreign court as contemplated by Fed. R. Civ. P. 28 (b); Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(f)(2)(B); &/or N.Y. Civ. Prac. L & R 3018. N.Y. Civ. Prac. L & R 3108 for example, says:
Continue Reading Divorce & Hidden Money: Filing Letters Rogatory & Lawsuits Over Offshore Assets
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ Swiss Leaks project, (“the Project”), arises out of whistleblower tips from Mr. Hervé Falciani who worked as a software technician at HSBC in Geneva. During 2008, Mr. Falciani reportedly supplied the French government with the Swiss bank account information of more than 100,000 HSBC customers from over 200 countries. The true beneficial owners of these accounts range from foreign dictators to American actors.
The Project is outlined by the article “HSBC Scandal Heightens Calls for Tougher Bank Oversight.” The article mentions “[t]he use of secret accounts and shell corporations to hide cash and its account holders is hardly confined to HSBC. Another banking giant caught engaging in this was Switzerland’s UBS. And there have been others.” According to reports published today by the Guardian, CNN &/or the BBC, Swiss police raided HSBC offices in Geneva, Switzerland. The police raids could be based on suspected violations of Art. 305bis Swiss Criminal Code: Money Laundering (English Translation) & other anti-money laundering laws.
The police raids and the Project bring to the fore the problem of money laundering through Swiss bank accounts. There are however, some Swiss reforms in this area. The reforms are outlined at an e-mail Swiss counsel sent me last week. The e-mail emphasizes there are “fundamental changes affecting the Swiss financial markets” and says “the business model of the banks is changing towards more transparency on tax matters.” Part of the e-mail is reproduced below and its key points are:
Continue Reading Swiss Leaks Project & Police Raids Raise The Issue Of Swiss Reform
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