Can People In Divorces Successfully Hide Financial Assets?

By Ed Opperman

It is very common in divorce cases for one spouse to suspect the other of hiding money from the courts. A person will take a look at their spouses affidavit of financial condition and see right off the bat with just a glance that most of the assets are omitted from the report. This is actually very common and it's at this stage of the litigation that the party will retain a private investigator to run an asset search on their spouse to uncover hidden assets.

This type of report will routinely uncover hidden accounts, property, trusts and corporations. Once the investigator returns his asset search report the attorney can subpoena the financial institutions and get all the records of transactions to see exactly when, where and how funds have been siphoned off of the accounts.

But is it possible to completely hide assets? Even from a professional investigator experienced in asset search investigations? How about a forensic accountant? Can funds and accounts escape his expertise? The answer is both a yes and a no.

There are many places and many ways to stash away funds anonymously. You can create a corporation in a state such as NV where and use a nominee service to maintain the corporation. You're name will not appear in the public corporate records so there would be no public record connecting you to the funds kept in that corp.

You can store cash in a safe deposit box. Many of these are privately owned companies that keep no records of box ownerships.

Another method is offshore or overseas accounts. These types of accounts have come a long way since the old days of numbered Swiss accounts, there are accounts in the Caymans and even international debit and credit cards that can be used at any ATM, shop or restaurant that accepts regular American cards.

So while it may be possible to hide funds it is not possible to hide the source of the funds. The funds have to come from somewhere and have to go somewhere. There has to be a transaction of deposits and withdrawals. The first step to uncover these hidden transactions is an asset search investigation. Next step is a court ordered subpoena to obtain the transactions and the next step is a forensic accounting.

With enough time, money and investigative resources money cannot be successfully be hidden in any litigation.

Copyright (c) 2011 Opperman Investigations Inc

For assistance in performing an Asset Search Investigation contact Ed Opperman Pres of Opperman Investigations Inc through his web site http://www.emailrevealer.com/

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