This is the sixth post in the “Divorce & Hidden Money” series.

Four Ways Assets Can Be Secretly Transferred” mentioned methods some use to move assets across international borders.  My post regarding the 2011 divorce between Helga and Gaston Glock discussed additional asset concealment tools.  Any one or a combination of these additional tools can be used to hide marital assets:

Multiple Jurisdictions–  To obscure the true beneficial ownership of funds or other things of value, a divorcing spouse may transfer assets through multiple jurisdictions.  If multiple jurisdictions are employed to hide marital assets during a divorce, efforts to valuate the marital estate can be hampered.

 

Foreign Bank Accounts–  A divorcing spouse may park assets in bank accounts located in Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, etc., which are jurisdictions with especially strong bank secrecy laws.  As a chart from a financial intelligence unit based in Canada partly demonstrates, foreign bank accounts can too be used as the laundering links of a money laundering circuit.

 

Dummy Corporations / Shell Companies –  These business entities are easily formed in Nevada, Wyoming, Delaware and other places where there are few reporting requirements about an entity’s shareholders, managers, etc.  The dummy corporations and / or shell companies can be utilized to open nontransparent bank accounts; and funds can then be deposited with anonymity into these accounts.

 

Trusts – a divorcing spouse may fraudulently transfer marital assets to a trust.  Depending on the circumstances, there can be different legal remedies available when this occurs.  The remedies may involve using pretrial discovery and seeking a court order to set aside the fraudulent transfer of marital assets to a trust.

 

 

First Image courtesy of Flickr (Licensed) by Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the BPL.
Second Image courtesy of Flickr (Licensed) by Tax Credits.
Third Image courtesy of Flickr (Licensed) by Andrew Malone.
Fourth Image courtesy of Flickr (Licensed) by Ewen Roberts.

Copyright 2014 Fred L. Abrams