As a divorce asset investigator firm, experience has taught all of us here at that you have to keep an open mind and look at things from all different perspective if you want to be asset investigations and recovery professionals. You never know what turns a case might take.
We could just about hear the attorney’s head shaking while we were talking to him on the phone. He had a client in the process of a divorce. It was a second marriage for both parties and the night before the wedding, she had had a little too much champagne and when a pre-nuptial agreement was placed before her, she signed it without even looking at it.
She had no idea what it said, nor did she have a copy of it. Funny, her husband couldn’t find his signed copy either – but his attorney had an unsigned copy in his office. AND he declared that his business was upside down and he was broke except for the assets he originally held and the income he currently received.
In an earlier deposition, she agreed she had signed the pre-nup, but had no recollection what it said or included. She really had no idea the impact on divorce assets, but his attorney did and requested that all his assets be excluded from the assets in the divorce.
She had a funny feeling that he was hiding money in the divorce, but she had no idea how to find hidden money, hidden bank accounts or any way to find hidden assets.
What blew the entire asset investigation wide open was the discovery of a couple old bank account statements that were held under of their names. Based on that information, our investigators could identify banks and credit unions where accounts had been opened and closed. Supplying that information to the attorney, subpoenas were sent to the financial institutions and the attorney was able to obtain account histories on the accounts.
It didn’t take long to determine that money had been placed in hidden bank accounts just prior to the divorce being filed. The timing was good for the wife because these previously unknown assets could be included in the divorce assets.
The moral, according to her attorney, is to always read everything you sign. If it hadn’t been for a diligent and determined divorce asset investigator, this woman could have easily been deceived and punished for years to come.
-Brenda McGinley, CEO, All in Investigations, All in Investigations
