Hiding Community Property In A High Net Worth Divorce

If you are in a high net worth divorce, your spouse might hide community property from you by misusing:

• artworks;
• diamonds;
• and multiple jurisdictions.

These are just three of the common money laundering methods. Although not a high net worth divorce case, filings in Brooklyn Federal Court in USA v. Ahmad reveal how one might use the three methods to hide assets. As set forth at an April 18, 2019 press release, the U.S. Government had placed Mr. Ahmad on a sanctions list for reportedly funding Hezbollah terrorists. Once Mr. Ahmad was on the list, trade with Mr. Ahmad was blocked and he was subject to economic sanctions.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ahmad’s March 29, 2023 indictment in USA v. Ahmad, claims Mr. Ahmad and eight co-defendants had evaded the sanctions. They allegedly did this by smuggling art and diamonds in a money laundering circuit. Moreover, Mr. Ahmad reportedly carried out the money laundering scheme through the multiple jurisdictions shown by this chart:¹

Mr. Ahmad’s alleged use of multiple jurisdictions would have made it harder to detect Mr. Ahmad’s suspected laundering scheme. Additionally, prosecutors in USA v. Ahmad seek to forfeit more than 482 diamonds which are described here. As part of their asset recovery strategy, prosecutors are also trying to forfeit over 100 pieces of artwork. One of the 100 includes the painting by Nigerian artist Luke Agada, shown at the top of this blog post.²

¹Chart courtesy of U.S. Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control.

²Luke Agada painting reproduced from p. 30 of Mr. Ahmad’s indictment and mentioned at the April 19, 2023 ARTnews article “US Prosecutors Say Art Collector Financed Hezbollah and Violated Sanctions, Dealing Art and Diamonds Totaling $440 M.“

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By Fred Abrams | Published September 5, 2023 | Posted in Asset Search/Fraud Investigation, Divorce & Hidden Money, Money Laundering, White-Collar Crime Generally | Tagged asset recovery, terrorist financing | Comments Off on Hiding Community Property In A High Net Worth Divorce