Many of our Kentucky readers know how frustrating the divorce process can get. The longer a divorce takes, the more those frustrations can build, which often leads to serious contentions. But while many people feel compelled to lash out at their soon-to-be ex when this happens, a case out of California this month is showing that certain revenge during a divorce can have serious legal consequences.
For those of our readers who have not heard about the case, it involves a 50-year-old businessman who decided to take revenge during his divorce by hiding assets so that they wouldn’t be distributed by property division. He then filed for bankruptcy in an attempt to further limit how much his ex-wife would receive in the divorce as well as impact his child support obligations.
But his actions soon led to an FBI investigation that uncovered millions of dollars in concealed assets that had been hiding during the divorce under other people’s names. Investigators even learned that he had used shell corporations to launder money, disguising his true income so as to avoid higher child support payments. This led to charges of bankruptcy fraud and, this month, a more than 17-year prison sentence.
If Pat Benatar is right, and love is a battlefield, then what is divorce? For the man in this case, divorce was a catalyst that caused him to lash out at his ex-wife. But while this didn’t happen here in Kentucky, similar legal consequences could befall anyone who was tempted to do as the man in this case did.
Source: The Sacramento Bee, “Gold River man who hid assets in divorce, bankruptcy gets 17-year sentence,” Denny Walsh, Mar. 4, 2014