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Trusted Attorney Searches for Assets in Offshore Accounts

Skilled New York lawyer unearths funds hidden from spouses and creditors

Fred L. Abrams Attorney at Law undertakes strategic searches to try to locate assets hidden offshore. Offshore accounts may seem the stuff of spycraft and international crime thrillers. In reality, these accounts are quite common among individuals and companies with sizeable assets. Banks in the Cayman Islands, Singapore, Switzerland, Belize and countless other countries offer certain advantages for parties who want to shield their wealth from creditors and spouses. Oftentimes, these schemes rely on strong bank secrecy laws and financial dealings which lack transparency.  Mr. Abrams uses targeted legal tools and an in-depth knowledge of asset recovery in his effort to bring transparency to these cases in which assets are hidden offshore.

Seasoned lawyer knowledgeable in offshore accounts advises divorcing clients

A married person may surreptitiously move funds overseas in an attempt to siphon money from the marital estate. When this person files for divorce, he or she will not disclose funds in the offshore account, so they are not subject to distribution with the rest of the marital property.

When a court finds that a married person has hidden assets that person can generally expect to receive a smaller share of the marital estate and may need to pay the attorney fees of the spouse who had to undertake the asset search. Under certain circumstances, the spouse who concealed assets may have also violated criminal laws ranging from tax evasion to mail &/or wire fraud.

If your marital assets appear to be less than the actual amount of the wealth accrued between you and your spouse during the marriage, it is possible that your spouse put assets beyond your reach in an offshore account. Assuming you have lawful access to them through legal tools, some of the following may provide clues or financial evidence of hidden marital assets:

  • Joint tax returns
  • Business tax returns
  • Bank account statements
  • Monthly credit card statements
  • Credit reports
  • Telephone records
  • Passport information for unexplained travel to offshore tax havens

Perhaps most important, if the information at these kinds of documents doesn’t match your spouse’s physical movements and lifestyle, then due diligence requires you to dig deeper / investigate further.

Strategic New York attorney works to recover money from offshore accounts

Mr. Abrams’ asset search process combines his knowledge of and / or experience with the law of several offshore tax havens.  To track assets, Mr. Abrams has also utilized the studied skill of investigators who were retired intelligence agents and / or retired law enforcement officials. Depending on the situation, Mr. Abrams may also recommend that a forensic accountant be employed to help comb through financial records to look for missing money and trace assets on the circuitous routes used to hide them.

The process of locating and recovering hidden assets may take weeks, months or years. Typically, the more determined a person is to concealing money, the longer it takes to trace and uncover. Once an offshore account is found, an asset recovery lawyer may use legal tools such as subpoenas, depositions, freezing orders, and letters rogatory to force the disclosure of funds. Furthermore, a judgment from a lawsuit in the United States that entitles a plaintiff to funds held offshore will not necessarily be enforceable where the account is located. In these instances, foreign judgment collection petitions become necessary.

In addition, foreign bank accounts are just one of the ways assets can be hidden offshore. Just some of the methods for hiding assets offshore include: maintaining assets in the names of foreign shell companies or foreign sham trusts, bogus loans from offshore lenders, investments in foreign real estate, purchasing valuable artwork offshore, maintaining diamonds in a safe deposit box at a foreign bank, etc.

Though the offshore asset search and recovery process can be long and complicated, Mr. Abrams has decades of experience in this particular area of law. Mr. Abrams has located tens of millions of dollars in hidden assets, and is capable of taking on complex cases.

Contact a committed New York offshore account search attorney to set up a consultation

Fred L. Abrams Attorney at Law undertakes extensive and meticulous searches designed to try to find and recover assets hidden in offshore accounts. To schedule a confidential consultation with Mr. Abrams, call 800-986-1497 or contact us online.

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