Wife showed us husband’s net worth statement and disclosure from husband’s accountant with bank information from 30 companies that husband controlled. We advised that she hold off on getting the opinion of a forensic accountant because we found 30 additional companies associated with the husband.

The court ordered the appointment of an independent business valuation expert as a result of our work. Our bill was $2,500.

As is often the situation in a contested divorce, the companies the husband disclosed had few assets, whereas the ones he did not disclose promised much more. How did we find them? By using databases, which can help but are almost never exhaustive in the companies they list. In this and in most similar cases, there is no substitute for going to the source – the Secretary of State in the particular state a subject may use for business. We found that this subject used variations on the same theme to name his undisclosed companies. Sometimes he chose the same name with a roman numeral, for instance.

A database could tell us he had Alpha LLC and Alpha I LLC, but we would find Alphas II through VI by looking at the source. Other times, because he dealt in real estate, companies were named after the address of the building these companies owned. By matching addresses we knew he was associated with and company names, we were able to generate a long list of companies he had not disclosed to his spouse.