I get a call from a private investigator.
“My banking source says there are accounts that can evade subpoenas,” he says. “They are called Beneficial Ownership of Legal Entity accounts.”
I hear his words but they seem unbelievable.
How is this not common knowledge within the divorce industry?
Especially since the greatest financial abuse in divorce is among the self-employed. They can manipulate and lower income. They can fabricate bogus expenses or not report revenue.
I will ultimately find out this private investigator is spot on.
I will explain how financially abusive spouses use these accounts.
But indulge me with this post-divorce conversation between my ex and me.
“I know what you did,” I say. “I know all of the corrupt tactics you used to hide all of our money and to lie, cheat, and steal everything from the business.”
“You’re crazy,” my ex-husband says. “There is no money, I didn’t hide anything.”
“I know about the Beneficial Ownership of Legal Entity Bank accounts,” I say.
“What’s that?” he says.
“Don’t play dumb,” I say.
“I’m not,” he says. “I don’t know what that is.”
“Stop lying,” I say.
“Colleen, I’m not lying,” he says. “How could I hide money in that if I don’t even know what type of account that you’re talking about?”
I am incensed by his denial.
Worse, if I didn’t know my ex-husband was lying I would’ve believed him.
This is how good he’s gotten at mastering deceit.
How do I know?
I’ve got bank documents stating our then seventeen-year-old son is a business owner and his father is the ‘Administrator’ of the accounts. I’ve also seen documents where my husband has opened a new business account (an effort to cheat me out of my rightful 50% as President and 50% owner of the business) and you guessed it.
It’s a Beneficial Ownership of a Legal Entity bank account.
I discovered both of these things by accident.
My husband got sloppy and forgot our son opened a bank account when he began working. When my husband went to change the name of the business the letters came in the mail to my son at our home address.
Back to the conversation with my ex.
“I’m so tired of your lies,” I say. “I’ve got proof and documentation.”
“I don’t know what to tell you,” my ex-husband says. “I don’t know what type of account that is. How could I have it if I never heard of it.”
I was so mad I finally sent him some copies of what I had.
I was sick and tired of his financial abuse and lies.
Abusive spouses have no limits in divorce.
It’s a fight to accomplish their desired outcome at any cost — pun intended.
Of course, these individuals would figure out how to cheat a divorce subpoena.
What is a Beneficial Ownership of a Legal Entity bank account?
This is an account where a self-employed person would ‘typically’ list themselves as an ‘owner’ of the account. It would have what is known as an ‘Authorized User’ or ‘Administrator’ also listed on the account. That would typically be someone a business owner may give account access to, such as their payroll person, accountant, etc.
Therefore, more than one person is listed on this account.
What will a financially abusive self-employed spouse do?
They will alter this account to work to their benefit during a divorce. They will not list themselves as the business owner. Instead, they will list themselves as the ‘Administrator’ or ‘Authorized User’ of the account and list someone else as the owner.
Who will they list as the owner?
In my divorce, my husband listed our then seventeen-year-old son as the business owner and himself as the ‘Administrator’ of several bank accounts. A subpoena should’ve picked up accounts listed under our son’s name and didn’t. I have reason to suspect my husband numerically transposed our son’s social security number. For instance, if it was 231 he wrote 213 and also listed an alternate address.
During a divorce, a financially abusive spouse will use anyone to do this.
They could use a child, a parent, a sibling, a friend, or someone they are having an affair with.
Why does this work and evade a divorce subpoena?
Because the financially abusive spouse is not listed as the owner of the account.
Think of it this way.
If your employee who does your payroll or your accountant was getting a divorce this account wouldn’t come up under their divorce subpoenas. They are not the owners of the business. They have simply been given access to the account by a business owner for professional reasons.
It’s not their assets.
For subpoena purposes, this was not an account ‘owned’ by my husband.
Because he listed himself as an ‘Administrator’ of the account.
It’s diabolical the lengths financially abusive divorcing spouses will go to in order to steal everything. It’s even more disturbing that they can get away with it. Something needs to change within the divorce system.
I’m apprehensive to share the financially abusive tactics my ex-husband used during an overly long and extreme divorce. I worry they could fall into the wrong hands.
I worry other corrupt and abusive divorcing spouses could employ them.
On the other hand, I feel the naive and trusting need to be educated.
I was a deer in the divorce headlights.
I didn’t believe people were capable of things like this.
I certainly didn’t believe the college sweetheart that I met at a Catholic college in Scranton, Pennsylvania was remotely capable of it. I didn’t think he could lie, cheat, or steal in any aspect of his life. Let alone to the mother of his children.
People could’ve warned me.
I would not have believed them.
I would’ve said, “Not my guy. He would never do that to me even in divorce. We have the same value system. He’s not capable of that even if he’s angry that I am divorcing him.”
But he did.
Worse, he hid the money over the years I was destroying myself trying to save our marriage. He went to bed each night next to me and I was none the wiser. He looked me in the face each and every day with a complete and disturbing absence of guilt for the pre-divorce financial abuse he was enacting.
In his altered pre-divorce, divorcing, and post-divorce mind it was ‘his’ money.
The banks and the divorce system just helped him do it.
Divorcing people need to elevate awareness of the criminal methods financially abusive spouses use to accomplish their desired outcomes. They need to understand money can be hidden and funneled through these types of bank accounts during a divorce.
They should also know financially abusive divorcing spouses may hide money in illegal trusts. These trusts are typically created online. No reputable estate attorney will create this type of trust because they understand the individual is attempting to hide money that can’t be traced back to them.
Money may be hidden outside of the country during a divorce. Additionally, a regular bank account could be established in the name of a friend or family member.
This is how financially abusive spouses take all in a divorce.
There needs to be a new approach to divorcing a financially abusive spouse.
A special type of subpoena should be created.
It should have an alert that this spouse is suspected of hiding money and financial abuse. It might have a case number assigned by the bank or financial institution so it can be elevated to a specialized representative of the bank or financial institution.
This representative would exhaust all avenues of the subpoena.
They wouldn’t just type in a name and see what comes up.
They would cross-reference everything.
They would key in a name and their social security number. If there was a business they would key in the business and the business ID. It seems that would be logical. I assumed whoever received the subpoena keyed in all the necessary information.
I was told by one bank that’s not necessarily true.
It depends on who is keying in the information for the subpoena. They might type in just the name or they may type in just the social security number and not the name. Likewise, for the business name, tax ID, and owner’s name.
A national bank and financial registry should be used in divorce.
Because people hide money in different banks and a spouse may be unaware.
It’s an illegal activity which means there should be a way to uncover it.
For instance, take my own divorce.
If I’m correct and my ex-husband transposed our son’s social security number and listed a different address on our son’s account this is what may have happened under the subpoena.
A representative of the bank keys in our son’s social security number and nothing comes up. Let’s say this representative is extremely conscientious and then keys in our son’s full name. The above account comes up but the social security number and name do not match so they dismiss it.
They do not believe it’s his account.
I know my ex-husband had been using our son’s name for years but he was doing the banking online. To create a bank account you still need a physical address so he used a P.O. Box. I have proof of this.
My ex-husband panicked when he was willing to finalize our divorce.
He decided to create a new business name.
He thought it would cheat me out of my 50% ownership.
In his haste, he forgot our son began working at sixteen and opened his own bank account which of course, listed our home address. Therefore, the bank sent two letters saying our son was a business owner and his father the ‘Administrator’ of the accounts. There were no account numbers on these letters.
If there were a specialized subpoena process this may have been caught.
It would have been flagged.
These specialized financial abuse subpoenas would also detect other things.
They would look to see if a divorcing self-employed spouse was not only an owner of an account but if they were listed as an ‘Administrator’ or ‘Authorized User’ on any accounts.
A man did this to me but there are women who will do it too.
Bad behavior is not gender exclusive.
But as a stay-at-home mother, I know too many women it happened to.
I share my story so it won’t happen to another. The people who lie, cheat, and steal in divorce will always exist. They will always gravitate towards corruption.
I should know.
I was a deer in the divorce headlights.
I loved a man who mastered deceit.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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