You generally know what is happening with your money and your spouse’s money, as you have for the length of your marriage. You don’t handle all of the bookkeeping yourself, but you have a good sense of what things look like.
You’ve now filed for divorce, though, and your spouse transferred a large amount of money to a friend. You asked why, since it was so out of the ordinary, and they told you it was just repayment of a debt they’d forgotten about.
But is that true? Or is something else going on?
Is your spouse actually hiding assets?
The risk is that your spouse has invented the debt as a way to hide assets; this is a fairly common tactic. They’re not really repaying a debt at all. Instead, they just asked their friend to hold the money during the divorce and give it back when that divorce is over.
The goal your spouse has is to keep from dividing that money with you. You’ll still divide everything else like normal, but they’ll get that full total back once the divorce is in the books, and they’ll keep you from getting what you deserve. While there are many ways to hide assets, this is often what people think of first because it’s such a simple scheme to pull off.
What can you do if you think your spouse is lying about their assets and debts?
Of course, hiding assets or lying about them is illegal. Your spouse is essentially trying to commit fraud. You may want to look into all of your legal options so that you can ensure the property division process is handled correctly.
