hidden assets Archives - Page 2 of 5

Is it Employee Embezzlement?

A very depressed-looking business owner came in for an appointment at . We are accustomed to clients or prospective clients arriving emotionally charged, either very angry or hurt, but they don’t usually act like this gentleman. Once talking, he explained that he was “darn near just ready to chuck it all in.” He said he was just confounded by what he knew was going on in his company. He just needed proof of it and confirmation of how deep the damage went. Whew. He explained that because his company dealt with many clients coming in for training from out of town, he maintained an apartment for their use doing their stay. It was fully furnished and maintained. What he had discovered was that it had [...]

Do You Suspect Assets are Hidden or Missing as You Face Divorce?

Sadly, statistics reveal that more and more couples in their 50s and 60s are ending their marriages. This is such a prevalent occurrence that it has now been dubbed “gray divorce.” In many instances, the wife has spent the marriage as a stay-at-home mother, also providing emotional support for her professionally busy spouse. Very often, in gray divorce, the wife is the identified victim, suffering long-term post-divorce financial struggles. Many of the women in these divorce situations have limited work skills and limited education. Their ability to grab good-paying jobs after divorce is fairly non-existent. Lack of education and job experience work against them, as well as their age. A level of naivety is also seen among women in their 50s and older. For most, [...]

Be Proactive When it Comes to a Fair Divorce Settlement

It’s not always at the divorce table that potentially ex-spouses try to hide money and assets from each other. No, at we have learned that many married people have secret accounts and other financial activities that their spouse does not know about – sometimes even throughout the entire span of the marriage. Every marriage is different and each spouse is unique, so we don’t rule anything out. In a divorce situation, attorneys generally pursue complete disclosure of the financial assets, but clients are forewarned to be proactive and expose any hidden money, locate hidden stocks or missing assets that should clearly be included in the deposition of assets in divorce. Being aware of some of the methods and resources used by , individual clients may [...]

Be ‘In the Know” in the Beginning Because Breaking Up is Hard Enough

Have you ever heard the nursery rhyme about the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead? There’s a line that says: When she was good, she was very, very good, when she was bad, she was awful! Aren’t most things like that? People are happy and excited and get married, or go into business together and everything is roses, giggles and rainbows. Then, when things get tough, it gets, well, awful. And much of the “awful” stems from one side of the differences being more aware or in control than the other. Let me explain. Take a divorce situation first. For some spouses, it doesn’t matter what is in the bank account or what assets are where or whether there is [...]

Investigators Provide Information and Evidence that Reduces Vulnerability in Divorce

Mary’s attorney contacted and explained that she was in the midst of a contentious high-stakes divorce proceeding. Several million dollars of her company's money was at stake. When Mary met with the investigator, she held nothing back. She said Steve, her soon-to-be ex, had never been the kind of guy to break a sweat. He worked menial jobs for a while, quit, and vacationed until Mary threatened him with divorce. And then the cycle started all over again. She was tired of it. For months, Steve had depleted joint bank accounts and had no explanation for what he did with the money. Mary surmised that he was hoarding as much cash as he could and he was hiding it because it was obvious – to [...]

Let a Business Asset Search Investigator Determine Whether You Can Get Blood From that Turnip

Have you ever heard the saying about getting blood out of a turnip? You know that you can’t squeeze anything out of a turnip that isn’t there. But there are businesses that try. When something goes amiss, say a client doesn’t pay their bill; or a competitor infringes on a proprietary idea or product; or a vendor doesn’t produce quality or the service you desire, owners and management might consider filing a lawsuit or seeking damages. That’s the way the legal system works and those reasons may be justified and right. But going to court and having a judge say you are right can be a huge mistake. If you are awarded a large settlement, it doesn’t matter – because if the other party has [...]

Virtual Currency and Bad Guys

Private investigators like consider staying on top of technology one of the requirements of the job. So when the bad guys start a trend of using a new technology, we are ready with investigative strategies to stay in step with them. We do a lot of computer investigation, forensic computer analysis and mobile phone forensics. In our experience, bad guys are trying to move money through services like Bitcoin. Many believe that transactions through these services are undetectable. While tracing the transactions takes extra skill and perseverance, they are not completely hidden. One example is that in order to get funds into the systems, the virtual currency has to actually be purchased. And purchases leave a paper trail. Computer forensics specialists, especially those who are [...]

Computer Forensics Uncovers Business Embezzlement

For more than a year, Sam and Julie worried about their future as business owners. For some unknown reason, their successful business now struggled financially. Sam spent long nights carefully studying line items on the budget with Steve, their business partner. It was difficult for Julie to finally speak up. But when they again worried about how to survive financially, she admitted her suspicious feelings about their business partner Steve. Julie was insistent that Steve absolutely had to be stealing money. Sam was positive that could not be the problem. Steve had been a long-time friend. He believed there was no way he would do something like this. Besides, Steve was as unstable financially as they were. Plus, since Sam repeatedly examined the financial records [...]

Has the Resources to Follow Every Lead – Whichever Direction It Takes

When a property owner contacts the police to report that their boat has been stolen, most police departments follow procedure by sending an officer to investigate. The officer does his job, interviewing the victim, gathering information about the stolen property and filing a report. Unfortunately, many police departments are understaffed. Officers are already so busy with trying to control violent criminal activities that the report about a stolen boat usually won't be at the top of the priority list. But when the boat happens to be worth anywhere from $200,000 to $1 million, the insurance company covering the stolen boat will likely want more attention than the police department offers, especially if red flags signal potential insurance fraud. In that situation, insurance companies often seek [...]

Hidden Asset Investigation and Computer Forensics Examination Reveals Many Truths

For the last year, Jennifer feared that her marriage was ending. In some ways, it was not a surprise. She was American and Laszlo, her husband of seven years, was Hungarian. Sometimes Jennifer tried to decipher whether the culture clash was the primary problem. Other times, she wondered if she and Laszlo had simply drifted apart since the birth of Szusza, their four-year-old daughter. Jennifer worried that Laszlo was hiding money in Eastern European banks. She had not worked outside the home since Szusza was born and she knew it would be difficult to re-enter the job market and immediately earn a reasonable salary. When they argued, Laszlo threatened to leave her with nothing. Then he threatened to return to his home country and take [...]