Your adversary may be placing assets offshore to hide them from you. Meanwhile, you could be trying to locate these assets through an asset search. One thing you might be able to do is spot the common methods for placing assets offshore. If you find your adversary used these methods, it might help you sniff
Money Laundering
Lawyers, Shell Companies, Trusts & A Florida Divorce
Prosecutors in U.S.A. v. Kozel accuse Mr. Todd Kozel former CEO of Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd., of hiding assets by using lawyers, shell companies & trusts. The prosecutors claim Mr. Kozel fraudulently concealed assets from his ex-wife Ashley Kozel during the former couple’s Sarasota County Florida divorce. Mr. Kozel’s alleged scheme is…
Hiding Assets By Laundering Them
Determined criminals hiding assets typically wash assets by using money laundering methods. Laundering methods include: commingling funds; opening secret offshore bank accounts; hoarding & smuggling cash; titling assets in the name of nominees; etc. The Asia/Pacific Group On Money Laundering lists these and other key money laundering methods at its typologies webpage.
The…
Look During Asset Searches For Lawyers Hiding Money
“Better Call Saul” & “Breaking Bad” remind us to look during asset searches for lawyers hiding money. In these fictional cable TV series, criminal defense lawyer Saul Goodman laundered money for meth maker Walter White & his co-conspirator Jesse Pinkman. At Breaking Bad’s Season 3, Episode 11 for example, Saul Goodman recommended washing illicit…
Hiding Money By Rigging Court Cases
One money laundering method involves hiding money by rigging court cases.¹ A plaintiff sues a defendant over a supposed breach of contract. Meanwhile, nobody knows the defendant is the plaintiff’s strawperson and the two have rigged the court case. When the plaintiff wins the bogus breach of contract case, the Court issues a money judgment…
Divorce & Hidden Money: A Husband Thought To Be A Smurf
This 40th post in my Divorce & Hidden Money series mentions Mr. Vardan Keshishyan, who reportedly hid money from his divorcing wife by smurfing (a.k.a structuring ). In the context of money laundering, a smurf makes cash deposits below a bank’s threshold for reporting cash deposits to the government. By doing this the smurf…
Track Hidden Money Senator Warren’s Plan Says
Last Tuesday Senator Warren released her plan to track hidden money & fight corruption. Money launderers, tax dodgers, narco-traffickers; terrorist financiers and other fraudsters can easily establish shell companies without disclosing who actually owns the shell companies. They open bank accounts and maintain the bank accounts in the names of the shell companies,…
Your Asset Search For Stock Share Certificates
An asset search for stock share certificates begins with looking for red flags. These red flags are listed at the July 2019 paper “FIU Tools and Practices for Investigating Laundering of The Proceeds of Corruption.” As page 19 paragraph 29 of the paper says, you should look for:
“[R]eceiv[ing] or purchas[ing] shares …
Mobsters & Fraudsters Accused Of Hiding Assets Via Formations House
Mobsters and fraudsters hiding assets seem to favor Formations House in London, an Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project webpage revealed. The webpage is called “#29LEAKS: Inside A London Company Mill.” Its first paragraph describes some of the customers thought to use Formations House:
What do a Swedish Hells Angels boss, an Iranian state oil
…
Hidden Money At Offshore Banks & Suspected Money Laundering
Today’s post is about Mr. Alex Nain Saab Moran (“Saab”) and Mr. Alvaro Pulido Vargas (“Pulido”) who could have hidden money at offshore banks; multiple jurisdictions; and in a nominee bank account (i.e. a bank account titled in the name of an intermediary). I listed these three methods for hiding assets at “Red…