If you are in a high net worth divorce, your spouse might hide community property from you by misusing:
These are just three of the common money laundering methods. Although not a high net worth divorce case, filings in Brooklyn Federal Court in USA v. Ahmad reveal
If you are trying to detect hidden money you should look for asset search red flags like “smurfing¹.” Smurfing is a form of structuring cash deposits into bank accounts. It is one of the ways to secretly place cash into a money laundering circuit. When a bank customer in the U.S. deposits or withdraws $10,000 or more in cash, the bank must file a Currency Transaction Report (“CTR”). The bank files CTRs with FinCen which is a financial intelligence unit. To prevent the bank from filing a CTR, a smurf would make several cash deposits under $10,000. By structuring the cash deposits this way, the smurf hopes to fly under the radar.
Count Five of the 7/13/21 superseding indictment in USA v. Bahadorifar, et. al., 21 Cr. 00430(RA), highlights an alleged smurfing scheme. The smurfing scheme was supposedly carried out by California resident and department store employee, Ms. Niloufar Bahadorifar. Page 34 ¶¶ 41-42 of the 7/13/21superseding indictment at Count Five says:
[B]etween at least approximately April 2019 and May 2021, BAHADORIFAR structured cash deposits totaling at least approximately $505,822 at a financial institution in individual deposits of less than $10,000 each.
Additionally, page 9 ¶ 12 of the 7/13/21 superseding indictment claims that since July 2020, Ms. Bahadorifar made about $472,000 in unexplained cash deposits into her bank account. This allegedly included 98 cash deposits totaling approximately $444,000 that were each less than $10,000. Ms. Bahadorifar is also thought to have tried to secretly transfer money by using debit &/or credit cards.
Meanwhile, an Iranian terrorist network, (“the Network”), may be the true beneficial owner of Ms. Bahadorifar’s alleged $472,000 in unexplained cash deposits. The Network is comprised of Iranian intelligence officers and/or their intelligence assets. It is reportedly tasked with kidnapping exiled Iranian dissidents for rendition to Iran. Once the kidnapped victims are back in Iran, they face imprisonment &/or execution. According to the 7/13/21 superseding indictment, the Network planned to kidnap Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad, who lives in exile in Brooklyn, NY. The Network apparently set its sights on Ms. Alinejad because she is vocal about the Government of Iran’s human rights abuses.
During the alleged scheme to kidnap Ms. Alinejad for rendition to Iran, the Network allegedly hired licensed private investigators to place Ms. Alinejad under surveillance in Brooklyn, N.Y. The Network through its intelligence officers &/or intelligence assets hired the private investigators under the pretext of recovering money Ms. Alinejad supposedly stolen &/or supposedly owed to a foreign creditor. The Network is thought to have even hired a Manhattan-based private investigator to place a vehicle with a hidden camera in front of Ms. Alinejad’s Brooklyn home. This could provide the Network with live video monitoring of the home.
Even though the Network hired private investigators to surveil Ms. Alinejad, prosecutors declined prosecution of the private investigators.The prosecutors might have believed the Network duped the private investigators into surveilling Ms. Alinejad. Prosecutors similarly declined prosecution of Ms. Bahadorifar for a conspiracy to kidnap Ms. Alinejad. Prosecutors declined this prosecution although Page 9 ¶ 12 of the 7/13/21 superseding indictment alleges Ms. Bahadorifar “caused a payment to a private investigator for surveillance of [Ms. Alinejad]…”Continue Reading Asset Search Red Flags, Smurfing, Private Investigators & A Kidnap Plot
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
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,
Although I have many asset search tips for you, three stand out if you are trying to detect a large amount of hidden money or other high value assets. My asset search tips are that you recognize: competing claimants; compartmentalization and laundering links.
My first asset search tip is that you see
Locating hidden assets can be especially difficult if underground banks/informal banking systems like hawala have been utilized. “The Hawala Alternative Remittance System and its Role in Money Laundering”¹ explains that hawaladars, (a.k.a hawala operators), secretly transfer funds to financial accounts maintained in Switzerland, Dubai, the United Kingdom &/or other international financial centers. The
This January 18th video depicts three 250 pound GBU-39 bombs dropped by B-1 or F-18 aircraft, in rapid succession on the same spot of the roof of an ISIS cash depot near Mosul, Iraq. As of last week, it was the ninth ISIS cash depot US-led forces had destroyed in Iraq &/or
Recovering Art Assets & Cultural Heritage Property—covers how divorcing spouses; terrorists & others may employ art to hide their assets. This post was written by Leila A. Amineddoleh, Esq. who is an art and cultural heritage lawyer and an adjunct professor at Fordham
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