Open or Shut? Assets Hidden in Bank Accounts
PROBLEM:
A couple had seven different bank accounts when they were married, but the wife never kept close tabs on them. Now the husband is using money from a joint account that the wife doesn’t realize is still open.
SOLUTIONS:
Bank records are like medical and cell phone records: you can get them without a subpoena, but you could go to jail for doing so. Calling a bank and pretending to be the debtor in search of his bank balance is simply not allowed under federal law. Still, a debtor makes a mistake by underestimating the resourcefulness of a spouse who thinks she’s being robbed. We had a client who was able to go over a list of “old” bank accounts with her bank manager, only to find that joint accounts she thought had been closed (because her husband told her they had been) were in fact still open and active. As a joint holder, she had access to those records. We then went to work looking at payees and other information.
Another client was able to figure out the presence of undisclosed accounts because her husband had backed up his smartphone on the family computer before moving out. As a jointly owned computer, we were allowed to look at it and discover text messages that referred to an account at a particular bank.
Finally, for clients still living with their estranged spouse, valuable information is often lying at the bottom of the drawer. One client discovered an old bank statement that referred to an offshore corporation controlled by her husband, and we then determined that the husband was taking an extra “consulting” fee from his public company without disclosing it.
As we’ve said many times on this blog, non-cash assets that are easier to look for without a subpoena can shed light on where cash may be hiding.
- A company you didn’t know existed leases equipment financed by a bank you didn’t think the other spouse used. That bank needs a subpoena because there could be personal assets on deposit there as well.
- If through searching securities records you find that a client’s spouse was paid by a company when it went public, you can find out where that company sent the money. Sometimes people get paid through side companies you didn’t know about, but are revealed in the public filing with the SEC.
- A condo in Florida you didn’t know the other side owned is mortgaged. The bank holding the mortgage is a good bet for holding other money too.
