This 22nd post in the “Divorce & Hidden Money” series says an asset search of your spouse should include inspecting your spouse’s passport:
Did your spouse hide assets from you during your divorce by opening a secret offshore bank account or by placing valuables like diamonds in a safe deposit box offshore? Did
If someone is hiding assets, you might detect the assets by reviewing: corporate records; patents & trademarks; court papers; U.C.C. filings; real estate documents; or through additional basic research. “A Low-Cost Asset Search” gives information about how to perform basic research. Although basic research can lead to a good result, it may not
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
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
A divorcing spouse could conceivably hide the following types of assets offshore: bank accounts; business entities; trust funds; real estate; aircrafts & yachts; automobiles; fine art and other valuables. Leads which may help reveal the existence of these offshore assets might be elicited from a divorcing spouse’s: passport(s); frequent flyer mile program
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
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