You and your spouse have been discussing a divorce. Your spouse is not necessarily happy about it, but they realize that there’s nothing they can do to stop the divorce from taking place.
As you begin to gather your financial documents, you find some interesting transactions. Maybe your spouse just gave away a substantial amount of money, transferring it to a family member or a close friend. You did not know this was going to take place.
When you ask them, they say that they recently remembered that they had borrowed money from that person in the past and never paid it back. They just wanted to get things squared away before the divorce. They act like this is normal and acceptable, but is that really what’s going on?
Creating phony debt
One way that people try to hide assets during divorce is by making up debts that don’t exist. Your spouse may not owe anyone money. Instead, they just talked to their friend or family member and agreed to transfer the money to them until the divorce was over, when it would be transferred back.
What they’re trying to do is keep you from getting the portion of the money that you deserve. Say that your spouse gave away $50,000 and you had a right to 50% of it. This is just an elaborate scheme to defraud you of the $25,000 that you are owed.
Thankfully for you, these types of things are illegal. Be sure you know what steps to take if you believe your spouse is committing fraud or attempting to hide assets prior to the divorce.