Can You Get Me Bank Accounts and Some Cocaine, Please?
If an investigator told you he could get you some cocaine or find you a way to conduct illegal business with North Korea, would you say “go ahead” simply based on the idea that it could be done?
We ask people this question fairly often…
Surprise! The Super-Rich Adjust Their Behavior as Government Pays More Attention
The New York Times was half right and half wrong when it reported that the boom in “trophy homes in the sky” is over. The right part: It turns out that there is not an inexhaustible supply of people willing to spend $50 million or more…
Offshore Asset Search? Start with Onshore
Clients always want to know what’s involved in searching offshore for hidden assets. Our usual answer is, “time and a lot more money than it’s probably worth, unless you’re looking for millions of dollars.”
Suddeutsche Zeitung, one…
How Investigation Helps Forensic Accountants
What’s wrong with using a forensic accountant in your hunt for a spouse’s hidden assets? Nothing, provided you hand that accountant all the pertinent information you can. We’ve mentioned the need for these professionals frequently on our…
Thinking About Prenups if Apple Wins
The debate so far over whether Apple should help the U.S. government execute a warrant to see what is on one of its phones has focused on the information of a dead terrorist and the prospective data breach (according to Apple) of millions of…
What if My Spouse Won at Powerball?
In honor of today’s $1.5 billion Powerball jackpot, we bring to the top the piece we wrote nearly three years ago, Jackpot! Finding Lottery Winnings.
The executive summary of that entry is that lottery winnings are federally taxable and…
Even if You Get Bank Accounts, Your Work Has Just Begun
We are asked all the time to get into the bank account records of the other side in divorce and other matters. As we’ve written many times, most recently here and various entries here, without a court order you can't make a bank hand over…
Magical Bank Account Searching
It happens at least twice a month: someone calls our office and asks us to obtain bank account information for another person – usually an estranged spouse.
We reply that without a court order, we are not entitled to know the account number,…
Envelopes Stuffed with Cash and Secret Offshore Companies: how $20 million goes missing
In a dramatic divorce case unfolding in Southern California this week, Hydee Feldstein, a retired partner at a large law firm, accused her ex-husband Peter Gregora of stealing $20 million of the couple’s money over the course of their marriage. …
Two Bites at the Apple to Catch the Worm: reopening divorces in cases of fraud
This week, the U.K. Supreme Court is reviewing the cases of Alison Sharland and Varsha Gohil to determine whether a spouse can reopen a divorce case in instances of fraud or misrepresentation after the parties have reached a settlement agreement.
Sharland…
