An attorney representing a bank recently contacted to conduct some hidden asset research.
He was representing a lending firm. The organization was holding paper on a property that had gone into foreclosure. The lender believed the customer had assets to offset the debt on the property but had hidden them.
What was really interesting was that the customer was letting the property be foreclosed upon, but was not filing bankruptcy.
The case has been pending for quite some time. Two years ago when the problems started, there was a search undertaken to identify and locate hidden assets. However, nothing was found.
But now, two years later, they have asked us to re-investigate to see if we could locate hidden money somewhere. They still suspected there were assets linked to the customer.
We found that the customer was moving some assets around. Now that assets have been uncovered, we then investigated the history of those assets. We were finding that he had them longer than two years. They were, indeed, hidden away, but for only a little while. Now everything is being exposed. There are assets which were not disclosed and the lending firm is pursuing them.
It’s like that sometimes. Hidden asset research can come back with nothing. That does not mean there isn’t anything there, it might be cash in a shoebox. If there are assets somewhere, eventually they start moving and that opens doors.
With the access we have to top level data bases restricted only to professional investigators, can take little openings and follow that path to research the history of someone attempting to hide their worth. It’s not unusual for those tiny clues to break open an avalanche of asset information. One fact or detail leads to another and pretty soon, the entire picture is revealed and clear.
When that happens, the courts are reminded that someone may have not been truthful and perjury has been committed.
Hidden assets don’t stay hidden forever. It sometimes just takes a time to find the first thread and then the whole scheme is unraveled.
-Brenda McGinley, CEO, All in Investigations, All in Investigations
