Many people associate “estate litigation” with contesting someone’s Will or Trust after that person has died. In my law practice, I investigate financial fraud that happens in many different places. It often only comes to light after a death, when it is revealed that all the money is gone or the Trust says it goes to someone who shouldn’t have it. But a financial investigation can be done long before that, and can reveal a lot. Whether it’s an employee who embezzled, a child who forged checks or stole a credit card, or a late-in-life spouse who exerted influence and control, I can get them. Witnesses forget or lie, but the money doesn’t lie.
Sometimes I feel like a detective (my childhood dream job). Through litigation, I can obtain bank and brokerage statements, credit card statements, and copies of canceled checks and deposits going back many years. When I see a large check paid from an account, I can trace it to see who received it. I can get that person’s financial records too.
I find “telephone checks” where someone asked the bank to make a credit card payment on a debt that isn’t in the name of the owner of the account or monthly electronic payments to a bogus company. Each of those transactions carries identifying information about the person who authorizes and receives that check. And I can find out where deposits came from, which helps me identify other assets belonging to either the victim or the wrongdoer that we didn’t know about. I find payments for the wrong person’s property taxes, and frequent ATM transactions at grocery stores and gas stations that add up to far more than the victim’s groceries and fuel could possibly have cost. Although a single transaction might be small, when I find a pattern over a period of months or years, the total can be staggering.
Because I follow the money, it leads me to financial fraud all over the place, not just where you’d associate it with an estate or a Trust. I get to be a detective, and at the same time I get to be a lawyer with the power to force the wrongdoer into court, subpoena financial records and witnesses, and require the bad guy to defend his or her actions. And the victim can receive justice – while he or she is living, not just after death.
For inquiries regarding financial fraud or abuse and estate and trust litigation, please call us at 661-259-7930.