How Assets May Be Concealed In A Divorce By Your Spouse
A divorce is a common case type that family lawyers deal with. The dividing of a couple's assets can be an incredibly uncomfortable and awkward part of the entire process, and it's possible that a spouse will try to hide asset so that they are not taken into consideration. Fortunately, hiring a divorce attorney will keep you one step ahead of your spouse. They are familiar with the ways that people can hide assets. So your lawyer will help ensure everything is uncovered.
Hiding Business Earnings
If your spouse owns their own business, it's possible that they will try hiding money earned from the business to make it seem like it is not as profitable as it really is. It also gives the impression that your spouse is not earning as much money as they really are because the business is suffering.
Your lawyer can go through the financial statements of the business to help ensure their accuracy. This is possible because of the necessity to turn in financial statements while the divorce case is in discovery. If necessary, an accountant may be brought in to analyze all the balance sheets from your spouse's company. Hiding assets in this manner is very common and easy for an attorney to detect.
Fraudulent Expenses and Payments
A technique to artificially lower the value of a checking account on a balance sheet is by making fraudulent payments. This is done by writing checks to people or companies that do not exist. After your divorce is finalized, the checks that were written can be canceled, and the money from those checks will then be freed up to use once again.
This can also be done by making fraudulent expenses for items that do not have any physical proof that a service has been rendered. For example, any sort of consultant provides a service, but the services are not always tangible.
Delaying Business Contracts
Independent contractors often work with clients after they have signed a contract. In a divorce, these contracts can be used as proof of future income. Your spouse may be delaying the signing of a large business contract until your divorce is over, but still working on the job until then.
If you feel your spouse could be hiding money from you so that it is not considered in a divorce settlement, work with a lawyer that can help discover the truth.
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