Divorce is hard enough without wondering whether your spouse is telling you the truth about your own finances. That was the reality for one of our clients who came to us ready to file for divorce and was already worried that her husband was hiding money she had every right to know about.
The Challenge
Our client suspected her husband was hiding assets during a divorce in Colorado, and the signs were hard to ignore. He controlled financial accounts and the properties bought during the marriage, and had separate bank accounts. When a spouse is hiding assets on this scale, proving it can feel impossible, especially with a limited paper trail to work from. Our client filed her case in Weld County, determined to find out exactly what she and her husband owned before the divorce moved forward.
The Strategy
Denver Divorce Attorney Ron Taylor and the Colorado Legal Group team started with what was available. Colorado requires both spouses to file sworn financial disclosures, but a disclosure is only as complete as the person filling it out. A close, detailed review of the opposing party’s limited financial records turned up small pieces that most people would overlook, including references that pointed toward undisclosed investment accounts, and ultimately to a foreign bank account.
After a thorough investigation, our team deciphered references in the original bank statements and later the foreign bank statement, and pieced together a clearer picture of where the money had come from and where it had gone. That work built a strong case that her husband was engaged in dissipation of assets.*
* What that means: He was spending, transferring, or hiding marital funds to keep them out of reach before the divorce was final. Under Colorado law governing the division of marital property, courts can weigh the depletion of the marital estate when deciding what an equitable split looks like. Learn more about how property division works in a Colorado divorce.
The Outcome
Based on the evidence our team uncovered, the judge overseeing the Weld County case ordered the opposing party to place funds that he had taken from an account, and then the proceeds from the sale of a property, into a CLG trust account, protecting those substantial funds from the risk of disappearing for good.
You can’t unwind what someone hid by hoping to stumble onto it. You unwind it by reading every line of every statement, and following every reference until it runs out.
That’s how one deposit becomes a crypto account, becomes a foreign bank, becomes the truth.
Ron Taylor
Divorce Attorney · Colorado Legal Group
Think your spouse may be hiding assets? You don’t have to figure it out alone.
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