Blackhat Financial Tricks: How People Hide Money In a Divorce

There are many reasons why a person would want to protect assets, property, or simply hide money in a divorce. The prospect of your marriage coming to an end is bad enough on its own, add to it the potential to lose everything you’ve spent your life building and you can see how divorce can be a devastating event.

While the instinct to want to hide assets is understandable its not advisable as if a person is caught willfully hiding assets they can potentially face charges for fraud as well as have all of their property awarded to the other party (your ex).

With that said, many have been successful both in hiding assets as a means to protect them from being divided up between them and their ex as well as adjusting their income leading up to a divorce in order to protect themselves from being bled financially.

Below is a breakdown of ways I have known to be successful in the past for certain people. Despite the success these individuals had with it I need to be clear that I do not recommend it or endorse it in any way.

The methods described in this article are not endorsed by the author of this guide, nor are they endorsed by Divorce Czar LLC or its affiliates. Providing false information on a Financial Summary in a divorce is perjury.

Methods used to protect assets:

Temporarily transfer Assets to someone else:

This is the best if done well in advance of the divorce proceedings as it may appear suspicious if all your money was withdrawn or transferred within the last couple weeks, but for those that see the divorce coming from a distance: strategically moving your finances and assets to someone else can be an effective strategy in protecting them. You can even transfer stocks and entire accounts into someone else’s name. Simply put, you don’t have to report property and assets that you do not own.

It goes without saying that this person needs to be someone you trust fully, consider the modern morality tale of Jose Antonia Cua-Toc who entrusted a $750,000 winning lottery ticket to his employer, Erick Cervantes, out of fear that his status as an immigrant would mean that he would not be able to claim his winnings. This plan backfired when Cervantes simply kept the money for himself. -– In 2012 a court did rule in Jose’s favor thanks to security footage of him purchasing the lottery ticket, he was awarded the full amount.

Purchase Assets that are more easily overlooked than others:

Expensive pieces of art, antiques, collectible coins, and even Persian rugs are all examples of items that may go unnoticed. This of-course involves you not listing them among your assets during the divorce and hoping your spouse doesn’t either, ideally the purchase of them would be far enough away that they don’t show up on your more recent credit card statements making this an option that works best if you begin doing it well in advance of your divorce and have a place to keep the items where your wife is less likely to notice them, such as in your office at work rather than at home.

Put salary increases, commissions, and any other income you are able to on hold:

If you have a good relationship with your employer you could ask them to hold off on a scheduled raise until after the divorce. If you work in sales you could hold off on collecting on a large commission or simply wait to invoice clients. As long as the sale has gone through this isn’t very high risk, it’s also one where if you are caught it doesn’t immediately appear to be being done for nefarious reasons, in the hubbub of the personal drama of your divorce you simply forgot to officially invoice certain clients.

Overpay on taxes:

If it times out right you’ll receive a refund after the divorce has been finalized.

Open an overseas account:

You’ve heard of a Swiss Bank account, right? Well, Switzerland isn’t what it used to be for people looking to hide money (They regularly turn the names of people suspected of attempting to evade income tax over to the U.S.), but certain countries do offer havens for people looking to hide money. Andorra, Liechtenstein, and Monaco are three countries currently considered to be tax havens for the rich.