Comments on: Divorce, hidden assets and suspected fraud – what can you do?

By: Marilyn Stowe

Marilyn Stowe — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:43:28 +0000

Sheila
I dont want to give false hope to any readers in such a position. Trying to set aside a court order after such a long period as 8 years is a mammoth, hugely expensive task, if it is not near on impossible, unless it can be conclusively proved that there was a fraudulent concealement of substantial assets that would have made a real difference to the overall settlement.The court will only order full disclosure if they set aside the original order and to do so there has to be very strong evidential grounds and not simply a request for a fishing expedition based on supposition. I would also caution anyone in that position very strongly against taking any steps to prove fraud that could leave them at the wrong end of the law. It is not worth it. Sometimes, however unfair it may seem, it is better to let sleeping dogs lie, move on with life and concentrate on the future. That is my general advice.
However, Sheila I am not your lawyer, I dont know all the facts and figures or whether you have other options apart from set aside, under the original order eg if your claims were not fully closed off, and so for an opinion about the strength of your own legal position on which you can then personally rely, you must take your own legal advice.
Best wishes
Marilyn

By: Sheila

Sheila — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:47:40 +0000

I divorced 8 years ago. My husband did not fully disclose his assets – he had a bank account with money in it that he had saved during our marriage. I will have proof shortly that his mother left money in her will which he did not share with me. Is this sufficient evidence to warrant an investigation of his finances.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 17:03:21 +0000

Hi Marilyn,
I am recently divorced after what has been an absolute horrendous divore battle that cost me £100k! Just to give you an idea…my ex husband transferred £607k of our money to his mother 2 weeks after we separated and after taking him to court I lost. Apparently his mother loaned him the money and he repaid it even though the documentation for it was not signed until after we separated! He then resigned as director from 5 companies…(he is still the director of 3) resigned from 2 family trust companies which is worth several million giving it all to his brother and his family. Had 2 medical reports done to say that he was so stressed from the family business that he can’t work and so I do not get any maintenace for my 2 children. He did not produce to my legal team both our Spanish bank accounts or our 2 children’s bank accounts. It only came to light during the divorce that he was investing in my name without me having an knowledge….I will never find out exactly what? He seems to think that he is above the law and because he has been allowed to act this way…bullyish…he has now reneged on the divorce agreement by paying off our children’s school fees which should have been paid into a joint bank acct and the decision made by us both. I told my legal team and indeed the forensic accountant involved that he had offshore accounts and noone listened to me….they had no interest at all. Since the divorce I have found out the name of the company offshore and have a solicitor involved. After spending a silly amount already I’m naturally scared to go down this road again…I have 2 kids to bring up with no income at all. I have not worked for 15 years. When I began my divorce I had faith in our legal system but not anymore the current system is a total sham…there should be high penalties for non disclosure so greedy and controlling people think twice before they lie. As it is right now you can hide your assets so easy so wives like myself whose husbands are wealthy have no chance finding out the truth.

By: Wanda

Wanda — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 15:50:36 +0000

Dear Marilyn:
I am in mediation with a man who has been deceptive too many times to count. I realize that this should be done in court, but I want to end this soon for children and me.
He had two omissions on the statement of net worth, which was certified bt attny for court That totaled $1,700,000.
Knowing this I have given him an amt for me to settle. Not a huge number. 1/3 of his salary. And 1/5 of equitable dist.

He cannot do it. He has no fear of the court, and frankly I see why i am surprised that it has no punitive measures in court for financial deceptionists in divorce O

Shouldn’t there be an award to the spouse who has to deal?
Lying on networh fines? What’s the point of not trying if no body gets spanked?

By: Marilyn Stowe

Marilyn Stowe — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 08:44:19 +0000

Churchill and Rachel
Yes I agree. The court will most likely ‘add back’ the sum involved into the pot.
This happened in one of our cases where a wife gifted £350k to the children of her first marriage during the separation period from my client. It was added back into the asset pot as though it still existed on her side of the balance sheet. My client then received credit for it.
Regards
Marilyn
PS I’ve changed the facts of the case to disguise the client’s identity but you will get the picture.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:19:22 +0000

Churchill

At the final hearing in my case the judge considered the purchase of a £72k Porsche a few weeks after the separation as profligate and put the full value back in the marital’pot’. It had depreciated by about £25k in 18 months. There is case law to support this kind of argument.

By: Churchill

Churchill — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 13:27:54 +0000

Hi Marilyn,

looking at the other side of the finances issue from hidden assets – what consequences are there for the spouse who, in a two year period between separation and FDR has spent at a rate far in excess of that when the couple were together? Surely the assets are to be looked after as far as reasonably possible before there is an agreement on how assets are to be split. This presumably relates to cash in the bank as much as to bricks and mortar value of a FHM?
What makes the case I’m speaking about so acute is that the account from which the majority of this profligacy occurred was not mentioned in the Form E, only in response to a subsequent questionnaire. So there was an attempt to hide the spending, which was wrong in itself I assume and made worse by the detail of the spending.
What, if anything, can the Judge do to re-balance the starting point before assets are divided? Are there any cases (my uneducated attempts to find any have failed miserably) you could point me towards for some guidance?
Thanks again.

By: Abbie

Abbie — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:42:14 +0000

I was wondering if you could help with a pointer on the following. A good few years ago a husband fraudulently remortgaged a family home by forging the signature of the wife and witness, never attended court and avoided all legal proceedings, leaving the wife to declare bankruptcy and her and the 3 children to lose their home. In court the bank argued that it was ‘her duty as his wife to know what he was doing’ and used an example (circa.1990) of a legal case where this had previously been argued successfully. I am trying to find the name of this case and whether it has been rejected in any subsequent cases? Any help would be very welcome! Thank you.

By: Marilyn Stowe

Marilyn Stowe — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 14:24:01 +0000

You can apply to have the settlement order set aside and the case reconsidered in light of the fresh evidence.
It isn’t easy and you need very good legal advice on the pros and cons involved.

By: jt

jt — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 12:21:41 +0000

What happens when you discover that the ex, who previously declared they got nothing on the death of their remaining parent, actually received over 50k and failed to declare it at the divorce.

The other party has paid them a monthly amount for years when all along they had this money – surely this is fraud and we have a recourse in the court