Divorce/Family Law

Divorce cases are an area where forensic accounting is often needed. Not all divorce cases involve issues of fraud, but a number of them do. Hiding money during or before a divorce is not uncommon in the cases that SGI is approached to assist with. In some instances, people start hiding money years before the separation. Investigation may be required from the time that the spouse started actioning their plans of diversion. Situations can exist where the spouse in charge of the finances tells the other spouse that the family is on a tight budget financially and not to spend money (e.g., not to buy shoes costing more than a small dollar amount), but they themselves spend many thousands of dollars on an affair. A spouse may provide copies of tax returns requested but these may not be copies of the returns that were actually filed with the taxing authorities. There may be questions concerning items such as stock awards, stock options, cryptocurrency, NFT’s, balances stored in accounts held with certain payment facilitation services, etc.

A divorce may involve multiple issues such as determining the gross known controllable cash flow available for alimony/spousal support and child support, determining the marital standard of living, determining the amount of reimbursements, determining undisclosed income (such as income from a side business) and undisclosed/hidden assets (such as undisclosed/hidden financial institution accounts – which may include undisclosed/hidden off-shore accounts), finding money/assets that have been diverted in various ways, assisting in determining assets for property division, marital balance sheet preparation, determining separate and community property interests in assets such as real estate, tracing/searching for money/assets, determining how the proceeds from the sale of an asset were used, and other financial calculations and analyses.

Statements have been made multiple times to Saul by a divorcing spouse that the other spouse is “very clever” (or words to that effect) and that any hidden accounts cannot be found. Statements such as these do not deter Saul as Saul is adept at finding accounts in and from the evidence. Saul has found multiple hidden/undisclosed accounts and/or hidden/undisclosed financial institutions even in records that parties and other professionals had already searched through and who concluded that there were no hidden/undisclosed accounts/financial institutions. In addition, Saul has presented on searching for hidden assets to hundreds of people which may apply to different types of cases including divorce.

SGI can work with your divorce attorney to assist you in your divorce litigation by providing litigation support in performing the scope of services. Even if no divorce case has been filed yet, SGI can assist you. SGI can also assist where there wasn’t a marriage but where other financial issues exist such as child support. SGI can assist attorneys in drafting cross-examination questions for witnesses, including opposing expert witnesses, at deposition and at trial. SGI can review reports prepared by opposing expert witnesses and provide commentary and insights on them. SGI can assist in preparing questions to be used in interrogatories and can assist by preparing document requests and by providing information to be used in subpoenas.