July 30, 2025
99: Follow the Money in Your Marriage with Forensic Accountant Tracy Coenen
Money secrets can wreck marriages—and cost you everything in divorce. In this episode, Forensic Accountant, Tracy Coenen, reveals how spouses hide assets (think offshore accounts, hidden income, even billionaires fighting over private jets) and how she uncovers the truth.
Tracy’s 25+ year career as a forensic accountant gives her a unique lens into corporate fraud, white-collar crime, and high-stakes divorce battles.
In this episode she shares:
- How to spot signs your partner might be hiding money
- Steps to protect yourself and your money
- How to have open, non-defensive money conversations in a healthy marriage
Even if you’re not headed for divorce, Tracy explains why financial transparency and independence are essential safeguards for every relationship.
Listen now to learn how to protect your finances, your future, and your peace of mind.
Watch this episode in video form on YouTube
To apply to be a guest on the show
You can email us at: thesugardaddypodcast@gmail.com
Be sure to connect with us on socials @thesugardaddypodcast we are most active on Instagram
Learn more about Brandon and schedule a free 30-minute introductory call with him
Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review.
Notes from the show:
Chapters
00:00 - Meet Tracy: Forensic Accountant Extraordinaire
05:18 - From Prison Warden to Fraud Investigator
09:14 - Unexpected Financial Background Story
15:02 - Investigating Money Laundering and Fraud
23:46 - Financial Sleuthing in Divorce Cases
29:54 - Red Flags in Marriage Finances
36:15 - How to Start Financial Conversations
40:57 - Steps for Financial Protection
Transcript
WEBVTT
00:00:00.179 --> 00:00:05.863
In today's episode we speak to Tracy Conan, a forensic accountant with over 25 years of experience.
00:00:05.863 --> 00:00:15.210
She uses her super sleuth skills as a forensic accountant uncovering hidden money in corporate fraud, high net worth divorces and all kinds of financial mischief.
00:00:15.210 --> 00:00:22.164
If you are or know somebody who is approaching divorce or want to avoid it, this episode is for you.
00:00:22.245 --> 00:00:26.428
Hey babe, what are we talking about today?
00:00:27.189 --> 00:00:46.268
I'm really excited because today we are talking about a topic that we have not ever covered on the podcast, and that is financial fraud investigation.
00:00:46.268 --> 00:00:56.222
And we're going to get into it with an expert who's been investigating fraudulent money behaviors, but especially when it comes to divorces.
00:00:56.222 --> 00:00:57.906
So listen up.
00:00:57.906 --> 00:01:08.575
If you're going through a divorce, planning your divorce, this is an episode you do not want to miss, because we're going to dig into all the juicy details of what to look for so that you don't get got in your divorce.
00:01:08.575 --> 00:01:12.411
And we're doing that with an expert, because we are not experts on finding you money.
00:01:12.411 --> 00:01:14.548
We are experts in helping you grow your money.
00:01:14.548 --> 00:01:18.510
But we've got Tracy with us today, and she is an expert and we're going to get into it.
00:01:18.510 --> 00:01:20.707
Tracy, welcome to the Sugar Daddy podcast.
00:01:25.980 --> 00:01:27.528
Hey, it is great to be here, but I am going to throw something in there.
00:01:27.528 --> 00:01:29.498
Even if you don't think you're going to get divorced, you think your marriage is solid.
00:01:29.498 --> 00:01:35.533
We're going to talk about some ways that you can protect yourself, just in case, because you just never know.
00:01:35.959 --> 00:01:36.781
That's exactly right.
00:01:36.781 --> 00:01:43.105
Well, you know and we talked about this After almost nine years of marriage, we just finalized our post nup.
00:01:43.105 --> 00:01:48.090
We are now big believers in the pre-nup, so, like, let's just put all the protections in place.
00:01:48.090 --> 00:01:54.456
Love is great, we want your relationship to work out, but life be life and and you've got to have protections in place.
00:01:54.456 --> 00:01:56.123
So we're going to get into all of that.
00:01:56.123 --> 00:01:57.007
That's a great call out.
00:01:57.007 --> 00:02:06.763
Let's get into this bio so that we understand exactly all of your expertise, your years in the business, and then we're going to get into your first money memory.
00:02:08.165 --> 00:02:17.123
Tracy Conan has been investigating fraud for more than 25 years, but she didn't always want to be a forensic accountant, With the dream of one day being a prison warden.
00:02:17.123 --> 00:02:19.170
Okay, we're going to talk about that.
00:02:19.170 --> 00:02:30.406
Tracy went to Marquette University and studied criminology A class on financial crime investigations reminded her how much she loved Encyclopedia Brown books as a kid.
00:02:30.406 --> 00:02:36.866
She continued her criminology degree but added accounting and economics courses so she could become a CPA.
00:02:36.866 --> 00:02:44.586
And here Tracy is finding money in cases of corporate fraud, high net worth, divorce and other financial shenanigans.
00:02:44.586 --> 00:02:49.548
I can't wait to dig into the shenanigans and also who wants to be a prison warden.
00:02:50.330 --> 00:02:51.893
Absolutely no one other than me.
00:02:51.893 --> 00:02:52.961
This is what I found out.
00:02:52.961 --> 00:03:09.752
Like people are blown away by that statement, but it is true I, when I was trying to decide where to go to college and I had the cup, a couple of finalists, and I was looking at the different majors that were available and I decided that I wanted to be a criminology major.
00:03:09.752 --> 00:03:13.963
I knew I was always fascinated by documentaries on prisons.
00:03:13.963 --> 00:03:16.429
That was kind of my thing to watch on TV.
00:03:16.429 --> 00:03:20.264
And so I'm like, well, what would I do as a career?
00:03:20.264 --> 00:03:24.245
And I, you know, back then we weren't researching this on the internet.
00:03:24.245 --> 00:03:27.305
We had to go to the library and look at books and things like that.
00:03:28.007 --> 00:03:30.111
But I came across the concept of being a prison warden.
00:03:30.111 --> 00:03:37.367
I was like, oh my gosh, this would be perfect because there are so many groups of people who can be helped when I'm a good prison warden.
00:03:37.367 --> 00:03:46.504
Right, we have the offenders themselves, who generally probably don't have a good experience in prison, and I want to help make some change there.
00:03:46.504 --> 00:03:51.401
You have the employees of the prison who are maybe not in the happiest work situation.
00:03:51.401 --> 00:03:52.344
I can impact them.
00:03:52.344 --> 00:03:56.581
And then there are victims of the offenders who feel like the system isn't fair.
00:03:56.581 --> 00:04:00.830
What can I do to help them feel like there is some justice?
00:04:00.830 --> 00:04:04.966
And then I bring the circle back around to helping the offenders rehabilitate.
00:04:04.966 --> 00:04:08.812
So when they go back out into the world they have job opportunities and things like that.
00:04:08.812 --> 00:04:18.560
I felt like there were so many ways that I could help society from one job that people say who wants to do that for a living?
00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:26.250
All right, real quick, I want to speak to the person listening who feels like they can't work with a financial planner yet because they're carrying a lot of debt.
00:04:26.250 --> 00:04:32.625
First of all, I see you and I need you to know you're not broken, you're not behind, you're just in a tough season.
00:04:32.625 --> 00:04:38.348
I created something just for you because I've had people reach out who are serious about changing their money story.
00:04:38.348 --> 00:04:42.274
But the full financial planning package just wasn't the right fit yet.
00:04:42.274 --> 00:04:47.944
So I built a new service through Oak City Financial that's focused completely on debt reduction.
00:04:47.944 --> 00:04:48.887
No fluff, no shame.
00:04:48.887 --> 00:04:55.916
You'll get a one-time planning session, a personalized payoff strategy, your own financial dashboard and monthly coaching.
00:04:55.916 --> 00:05:01.235
If you want extra support while you climb out, it's $300 to get started and $100 a month.
00:05:01.235 --> 00:05:03.624
If you want that ongoing guidance, that's it.
00:05:03.624 --> 00:05:07.567
This is about helping you get unstuck, not making you feel like you failed.
00:05:07.567 --> 00:05:11.225
If this sounds like what you've been needing, go ahead and schedule a call with me.
00:05:11.225 --> 00:05:12.644
The link is in the show notes.
00:05:12.644 --> 00:05:14.225
Let's take the first step together.
00:05:18.620 --> 00:05:22.528
Well, when you put it like that, I mean, wow, what an impact you could have made.
00:05:22.528 --> 00:05:28.720
So kudos to you for really seeing the big picture and wanting to be a true helper in the community.
00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:33.367
But I've literally never heard anybody say that and I don't think I'm going to hear that again.
00:05:33.367 --> 00:05:35.588
So you're truly one in a million.
00:05:35.779 --> 00:05:39.930
Yeah, I have a criminology minor and never thought about being a warden.
00:05:40.130 --> 00:05:40.952
Yeah, no, no, no.
00:05:50.439 --> 00:05:53.752
Well, it's interesting because when I graduated with my criminology degree, I had a lot of accounting and economics classes, but I couldn't get a job in that field.
00:05:53.752 --> 00:05:54.053
I needed more.
00:05:54.053 --> 00:05:55.720
So I went on to get an MBA and I was going to sit for the CPA exam, which I did.
00:05:55.720 --> 00:06:00.451
But in the meantime I needed to earn a living, and so I was a probation officer.
00:06:00.451 --> 00:06:02.545
So I got an upfront look at the criminal justice system as a probation officer.
00:06:02.545 --> 00:06:08.985
So I got an upfront look at the criminal justice system as a probation officer and, my goodness, if I had stayed there.
00:06:08.985 --> 00:06:10.288
I wouldn't have stayed there.
00:06:10.288 --> 00:06:16.088
I probably would have tapped out after five years if I didn't have this alternate plan in place already.
00:06:17.230 --> 00:06:24.110
Well, thank you for the pivot, because we are excited to get into what you're doing now as a trained CPA.
00:06:24.110 --> 00:06:26.821
You've been in this career for more than two decades.
00:06:26.821 --> 00:06:32.694
Before we go into all of that, we want to hear your first money memory.
00:06:34.420 --> 00:06:39.773
So I was thinking about this, and I don't specifically have a money memory.
00:06:39.773 --> 00:06:46.072
I don't know what that would be, but here is what I discovered in adulthood that I didn't know as a child.
00:06:46.452 --> 00:06:46.593
Okay.
00:06:46.759 --> 00:06:50.750
I did not know as a child that we were solidly lower class.
00:06:50.750 --> 00:06:54.908
I had no realization of that because we owned a home.
00:06:54.908 --> 00:07:06.471
That, by the way, my parents had a mortgage with an 18% interest rate on it, and so my dad worked in a factory, my mom stayed at home and every bit of extra money they had went towards that mortgage.
00:07:06.471 --> 00:07:09.449
They would make double mortgage payments as often as possible.
00:07:09.449 --> 00:07:13.230
And what I also didn't know was how tightly we were budgeted.
00:07:13.230 --> 00:07:21.706
I knew that I got to go have dance lessons and things like that, but I didn't think about where the money came from.
00:07:22.279 --> 00:07:38.264
And in adulthood I discovered through conversations with my mom who handled the budget, that her creative budgeting of course included clipping coupons aggressively, that I knew Going to the store on double coupon day, never buying any item at the grocery store unless it was on sale.
00:07:38.264 --> 00:07:41.372
Literally never bought an item unless it was on sale.
00:07:41.372 --> 00:07:51.334
And then during summer we had a very large garden and the money that my mom saved on groceries in summer was used to buy Christmas gifts.
00:07:51.334 --> 00:08:00.952
And, interestingly enough, santa brought things like a new toothbrush, new pajamas, new school clothes.
00:08:00.952 --> 00:08:07.622
Grandma and grandpa got us toys, but Santa, for for the most part, brought things that we were going to need anyway.
00:08:09.064 --> 00:08:22.641
Wow, what a great moment of reflection and now understanding like the sacrifice to that your parents were making and how they did that with making it so that we didn't even notice.
00:08:23.463 --> 00:08:24.687
I can't even comprehend.
00:08:25.108 --> 00:08:25.951
Yeah, I also.
00:08:25.951 --> 00:08:27.262
I've also heard to that.
00:08:27.262 --> 00:08:31.824
You know you're growing up in maybe the lower socioeconomic level, that you're around your peers.
00:08:31.824 --> 00:08:34.711
So you know the person to your left, the person to your right.
00:08:34.711 --> 00:08:38.169
It's in the same situation, so it doesn't seem like there's any variance there, you know.
00:08:40.059 --> 00:08:42.724
Yeah, I, I just I didn't think about it.
00:08:42.724 --> 00:08:54.649
You know, for us we could during the summer, twice we got to go to Dairy Queen to get an ice cream cone in the evening and that was a big deal to us because it was only twice in the summer.
00:08:54.649 --> 00:09:02.333
And I think about now how kids would really complain if that was the deal and they couldn't go get treats like that on a routine basis.
00:09:02.333 --> 00:09:09.067
For us treats were store-bought cookies, because mom always made the cookies from scratch because it was cheaper and they tasted better.
00:09:09.067 --> 00:09:13.700
But on that rare occasion we got store-bought cookies, like maybe grandma brought them over or something.
00:09:13.700 --> 00:09:15.745
That was a big deal, oh my gosh.
00:09:15.985 --> 00:09:35.046
Oh, it just makes you appreciate, though, how, how hard our parents worked and how the sacrifices that they made to make sure that you have what you need, even if you're getting it quote unquote from Santa, but also that you don't feel the impact of, you know, really struggling and kind of making it and getting by.
00:09:35.046 --> 00:09:38.361
So that's good parenting, right there, yeah.
00:09:38.842 --> 00:09:39.244
I agree.
00:09:40.025 --> 00:09:45.639
Let's get into your work now because it's so interesting.
00:09:45.639 --> 00:09:56.168
I mean, you know, we watch the shows and we hear about money laundering and you know the fraudulent things happening in corporate and we see that on the news and in the movies.
00:09:56.168 --> 00:10:07.793
But what you're doing now is so interesting because you're really, I would assume, helping women mostly get the most out of their divorce.
00:10:07.793 --> 00:10:08.995
Correct me if I'm wrong there.
00:10:09.975 --> 00:10:13.539
Yes, so the divorce work is really only about a third of my practice.
00:10:13.539 --> 00:10:24.846
The other two thirds is stuff like executive stealing from companies, people who have been charged with white collar crimes like embezzlement I do help to defend them.
00:10:24.846 --> 00:10:28.884
Charged with white collar crimes like embezzlement I do help to defend them.
00:10:28.884 --> 00:10:31.791
Companies arguing with other companies about transactions gone wrong and who lost money and how much.
00:10:31.791 --> 00:10:39.383
Or maybe even like business divorces, where partners are having accusations between each other about money, shenanigans and things like that.
00:10:39.864 --> 00:11:00.866
So, in regard to the divorce, yes, it usually is most often the women that I am retained to help, and that's because, as far as we've come in this world, women are still, the vast majority of the time, the lesser earner, in the lesser position of power when it comes to the finances in the marriage, and so they are the ones who are needing help to look for is.
00:11:00.866 --> 00:11:02.030
Is everything there?
00:11:02.030 --> 00:11:03.225
Did we find everything?
00:11:03.225 --> 00:11:06.690
Can you untangle these, these finances?
00:11:06.690 --> 00:11:09.595
My husband is telling me this is what we have, this is all we have.
00:11:09.595 --> 00:11:10.318
It's all fine.
00:11:10.318 --> 00:11:13.368
I've been looking after it, but is it really all fine?
00:11:13.368 --> 00:11:14.311
Is it really all there?
00:11:14.892 --> 00:11:21.424
Yeah, out of the those three components that you just mentioned, which one is your favorite?
00:11:23.086 --> 00:11:23.948
Which three components.
00:11:24.649 --> 00:11:34.148
So if you're thinking about like corporate versus the divorce, work versus you know, working with maybe business partners, my favorite is white collar criminal defense.
00:11:34.148 --> 00:11:36.125
So I why yeah?
00:11:36.759 --> 00:11:52.109
Listen, when the federal government is coming after someone and charging them with a crime like money laundering or tax fraud or something like that, they come in full force and they have a tendency to be wrong in their numbers, sometimes intentionally aggressive.
00:11:52.109 --> 00:12:02.336
Many times Sometimes they just weren't thorough and careful enough, and my job is to help defend this person, because many of my clients are guilty of crimes.
00:12:02.336 --> 00:12:08.586
However, they deserve to get punished for what they're truly guilty of, not some made up number.
00:12:08.586 --> 00:12:10.250
They are, you know.
00:12:10.250 --> 00:12:23.701
They deserve to have someone like me going through the numbers and making sure that the numbers are accurate, and so I like that advocacy part of it, because criminals need love too, and some of my some of my clients are not guilty.
00:12:23.761 --> 00:12:27.024
I just had a few weeks ago a criminal trial in San Francisco.
00:12:27.024 --> 00:12:29.971
My client was absolutely not guilty of a crime.
00:12:29.971 --> 00:12:41.532
He made a big mistake in his business, but we believed it was not a crime and it took a couple years of his life, many hundreds of 1000s of dollars, to defend himself and at the end of the day he went home.
00:12:41.532 --> 00:12:42.783
We got a not guilty verdict.
00:12:43.423 --> 00:12:46.812
Wow, yeah, I mean that's impactful work.
00:12:46.812 --> 00:12:50.591
I mean you're really impacting people's lives for the positive.
00:12:50.591 --> 00:12:53.229
And I mean, can we just pause for a second?
00:12:53.229 --> 00:12:57.169
You mean the government isn't always accurate with their numbers.
00:12:57.169 --> 00:12:59.785
Gasp, I can't imagine.
00:12:59.785 --> 00:13:02.629
Hard to believe, hard to believe.
00:13:02.629 --> 00:13:03.902
I'm just on the floor.
00:13:04.062 --> 00:13:11.131
And also for the judicial system to work effectively and properly.
00:13:11.131 --> 00:13:25.791
Everyone's entitled to a proper defense, so that's how it needs to function, and if you're just already assuming guilt and not actually going through the proper steps, then that's just one more step towards the downfall of the judicial system.
00:13:25.951 --> 00:13:39.808
Yeah Right, there are a lot of people who do what I do for a living who will not take criminal cases on the defense side because they think it's dirty or because they don't want to work with criminals or people that they assume are guilty.
00:13:39.808 --> 00:13:44.346
And I pass no judgment on my clients.
00:13:44.346 --> 00:13:45.571
The numbers are the numbers.
00:13:45.571 --> 00:13:48.768
I'm just there to find out the truth about the numbers and then testify about them.
00:13:48.807 --> 00:13:56.793
If we get that far, yeah, well, and as the person who wanted to be a prison warden coming full circle there.
00:13:56.793 --> 00:13:58.586
That seems like you know.
00:13:58.586 --> 00:14:03.787
You're still kind of in that same space of helping people and trying to improve people's lives.
00:14:04.379 --> 00:14:05.465
So it is that space.
00:14:05.465 --> 00:14:28.644
But you know, there are cases where I end up saying to the client and the attorney listen, I've gone through everything and you're actually looking even worse than the government is pointing you out to be, and so we might want to think about what we do next in terms of whether you might be wanting to accept a plea deal or something because I can't come and and assist in your defense.
00:14:28.644 --> 00:14:32.192
I'm actually I found more than they found that that happens.
00:14:32.639 --> 00:14:39.724
Yeah, would you ever work on the government side and you know if you're finding more than than they even came up with?
00:14:39.724 --> 00:14:43.500
I mean, that's kind of a good bargaining chip, if you ask me like hey.
00:14:44.544 --> 00:14:46.566
I used to work on the government side in cases.
00:14:46.566 --> 00:14:52.628
Sometimes I, several years ago, just chose not to anymore, only defense side when it comes to criminal cases.
00:14:52.628 --> 00:14:53.951
Yeah, interesting.
00:14:54.760 --> 00:15:14.028
Okay, I think most of our listeners are going to want the juicy goodness when it comes to planning for a divorce, going through a divorce, getting I mean nobody wins in a divorce, I think that's I mean most people would agree, right, even if people feel like, well, I gave her so much or he, you know he was fair, or whatever.
00:15:14.028 --> 00:15:16.945
It's like, yeah, you still didn't come out on top, you're still got divorced.
00:15:16.945 --> 00:15:37.952
Walk us through what you do in a divorce, regardless of if you know the man is the breadwinner, the woman is the breadwinner, whatever the relationship dynamic is like, what happens in that process when somebody comes to you, or or when should people come to you if there's a divorce kind of looming?
00:15:39.062 --> 00:15:44.788
So it's usually their attorney who comes to me, because the attorney is familiar with hiring experts and knows exactly what they need.
00:15:44.788 --> 00:15:45.945
And they're coming to me because the attorney is familiar with hiring experts and knows exactly what they need.
00:15:45.945 --> 00:15:50.231
And they're coming to me hopefully early on in the case.
00:15:50.231 --> 00:15:56.211
When you come late, when deadlines are looming, it makes it really hard for me to be able to do what I need to do.
00:15:56.211 --> 00:16:06.158
But it's hopefully early and it's probably a case where there's a pretty significant amount of money in play and there's some sort of complication.
00:16:06.158 --> 00:16:14.087
Maybe there's a business involved, maybe there's multiple pieces of real estate, maybe someone is self-employed, and that makes it difficult to figure out.
00:16:14.087 --> 00:16:15.432
Well, how much do they really make?
00:16:15.559 --> 00:16:26.144
You know, I've been involved in plenty of cases where the family was living a lifestyle that maybe costs two or $300,000 a year to live because they're traveling on and doing a lot of things.
00:16:26.144 --> 00:16:44.945
But when you look at their tax return, it says they're making $50,000 a year and the person who's hiring me says well, I know that that's not true because we did all these things and it costs all this money, and so I'm coming in to help them prove what money was coming out of a business to them that was funding that lifestyle.
00:16:44.945 --> 00:17:08.451
And so, in the most basic terms, what will happen is I will get a whole bunch of bank statements, credit card statements, investment account statements, and that's almost always my starting point, because I start going through those transactions to figure out what is the flow of money, what's going back and forth between accounts, how much is going out to pay the mortgage, how much was going out every year to go on vacations, and things like that.
00:17:10.642 --> 00:17:12.189
So you dig into the statements.
00:17:12.189 --> 00:17:15.742
Do you have a hard time getting access?
00:17:15.742 --> 00:17:17.867
Or because you're working with the attorneys?
00:17:17.867 --> 00:17:23.151
They're going to make that happen, even if somebody doesn't want to be compliant and providing all those details.
00:17:24.440 --> 00:17:26.305
Because they're in a litigation process.
00:17:26.305 --> 00:17:31.263
They can send subpoenas to the banks and credit card companies to get those statements Now.
00:17:31.263 --> 00:17:37.083
Attorneys generally want to first start out by asking the other side for statements and playing nice about it.
00:17:37.083 --> 00:17:40.147
It's less expensive if they willingly give it up.
00:17:40.147 --> 00:17:46.236
My caution there is oftentimes this creates delays If you have a noncompliant spouse.
00:17:46.759 --> 00:17:55.221
One of their favorite things to do is not turn over account statements and then keep saying they're coming, they're coming, they're coming, and we can waste months waiting for account statements.
00:17:55.221 --> 00:17:59.171
Attorneys will typically request them, give a 30-day deadline.
00:17:59.171 --> 00:18:04.381
The deadline passes, they'll request them again and give another 30-day deadline and keep doing this over and over.
00:18:04.381 --> 00:18:09.032
My approach to this and what I recommend when attorneys are open to the input.
00:18:09.032 --> 00:18:14.431
My approach is ask them once, give them whatever time period you normally do.
00:18:14.431 --> 00:18:20.833
If they don't turn them over, give them a reminder with a much shorter time period to comply because your date had already passed.
00:18:20.833 --> 00:18:24.269
And once they miss that second date, we go straight to subpoenaing the bank.
00:18:24.269 --> 00:18:31.534
It's going to cost the client a few hundred dollars probably to subpoena a bank, but we're going to get the documents, usually within about a month.
00:18:32.519 --> 00:18:35.009
Ooh, even after the subpoena it still is going to take a month.
00:18:35.009 --> 00:18:39.602
So everything takes a long time take a month.
00:18:39.622 --> 00:18:40.285
So everything takes a long time.
00:18:40.285 --> 00:18:46.987
The thing is that in this day and age, with it all being electronic in the old days it took much longer because they had to go research this all on microfiche and pull up things by hand.
00:18:46.987 --> 00:18:53.692
Now it really is a matter of someone at the bank typing in the correct information in the system to pull out what we need.
00:18:53.692 --> 00:18:59.912
I have seen subpoenas be returned in a week or two, but I usually tell clients plan on about a month.
00:18:59.912 --> 00:19:02.444
Worst case scenario, six weeks.
00:19:02.444 --> 00:19:10.432
If there's a really large volume of documents that the bank needs to get, they may advise us that it's going to take two months or something like that.
00:19:10.980 --> 00:19:15.810
Okay, what about in the events of like you don't know what you don't know?
00:19:15.810 --> 00:19:16.452
So what if?
00:19:16.452 --> 00:19:21.788
What about hidden accounts and secret accounts or offshore accounts, like, how do you navigate that?
00:19:22.690 --> 00:19:26.234
I'm so glad you asked that because it always goes there.
00:19:26.234 --> 00:19:29.487
There's there's two different ways to investigate.
00:19:29.487 --> 00:19:37.123
There's what I call the wild goose chase, and then there's the investigation that's very document based and I do, for the most part, the very document based one.
00:19:37.123 --> 00:19:39.376
We are starting with the accounts that we know about and I do, for the most part, the very document based one.
00:19:39.376 --> 00:19:45.400
We are starting with the accounts that we know about and almost always those hidden accounts end up being revealed.
00:19:45.400 --> 00:19:47.446
And it's really simple how it happens.
00:19:47.446 --> 00:19:52.785
Someone makes a transfer to an account out of our joint checking account, voila.
00:19:52.785 --> 00:19:55.070
We know there's another bank, we know there's another account.
00:19:55.070 --> 00:19:56.342
We send a subpoena there.
00:19:56.342 --> 00:20:08.069
And I always say it's like you know, when you have a sweater that has a little piece of yarn sticking out and if you pull it, the whole sweater is going to start unraveling, all I need is one of those pieces, and usually we can find a lot.
00:20:08.069 --> 00:20:11.325
That wild goose chase, there's value in it.
00:20:11.325 --> 00:20:13.048
I'm just not the person to do it.
00:20:13.048 --> 00:20:19.667
I will do it's kind of like doing a really fancy background check and I can do a very basic background check.
00:20:19.688 --> 00:20:24.075
But there are private investigators who specialize in doing this stuff for divorce.
00:20:24.075 --> 00:20:39.480
And so what they're going to do is collect from you like a brain dump from you Tell me everything about your ex and who he's doing business with and what business entities he has and maybe where some real estate was owned and where he lived previously and all these sorts of things.
00:20:39.480 --> 00:20:52.094
And then they start pulling at those threads, looking through the databases and things that they have access to, and that's how we're going to uncover a piece of real estate somewhere usually, or another business venture.
00:20:52.094 --> 00:20:58.432
Things get interesting like he has done business with so-and-so who's a good friend of his.
00:20:58.432 --> 00:21:05.549
Well, the private investigator might start looking at that friend and then suddenly find, oh, they have this other business venture together that you never knew about.
00:21:05.549 --> 00:21:08.887
So those are kind of the two ways that we go about this.
00:21:09.569 --> 00:21:19.929
Okay, when it comes to uncovering money right from your social media, I gather that a lot of times and let's just call the spade the spade.
00:21:19.929 --> 00:21:23.047
I'm sure it happens more with the man trying to hide money.
00:21:23.047 --> 00:21:30.115
I know, you know there's all sorts of bad people who come in all genders and it is what it is.
00:21:30.115 --> 00:21:36.800
But for today's conversation we're going to say the man is hiding money, or the man is saying, well, I actually don't make this much.
00:21:36.800 --> 00:21:43.191
Or you know the business, you're always paying the business back, so the W-2 is not going to show very much.
00:21:43.191 --> 00:21:45.134
How do you overcome?
00:21:45.134 --> 00:21:48.164
Oh no, there actually is money here, right?
00:21:48.164 --> 00:21:55.569
I think you recently posted something about you know the company car and the company trips and like this, it all has value.
00:21:55.569 --> 00:21:56.853
So how do you uncover that?
00:21:57.401 --> 00:22:01.211
It all has value and there's always documentation behind it.
00:22:01.211 --> 00:22:06.211
So the key to unraveling this no matter if you have an expert, you don't have an expert.
00:22:06.211 --> 00:22:11.893
It's all about evidence and facts, getting account statements, getting information.
00:22:11.893 --> 00:22:17.761
So the thing you mentioned when someone has a company car or certain perks from their company, yes, there's value there.
00:22:17.761 --> 00:22:23.250
We can get that information by having the attorney send subpoenas to their employer.
00:22:23.692 --> 00:22:31.030
We ask for records from HR and from payroll and you might end up with a copy of an employment contract.
00:22:31.030 --> 00:22:40.642
You might end up with information on a stock option plan that you didn't know you had before, and it's all about adding all of these things up.
00:22:40.642 --> 00:22:58.430
When it comes to you know money that is being spent by us personally but isn't showing up on the W-2, then it's a matter of looking at our bank statements and credit card statements and figuring out what did we spend on our lifestyle and then being able to present that in court.
00:22:58.430 --> 00:22:59.832
If we have to right.
00:00:00.179 --> 00:00:05.863
00:00:05.863 --> 00:00:15.210
00:00:15.210 --> 00:00:22.164
00:00:22.245 --> 00:00:26.428
00:00:27.189 --> 00:00:46.268
00:00:46.268 --> 00:00:56.222
00:00:56.222 --> 00:00:57.906
00:00:57.906 --> 00:01:08.575
00:01:08.575 --> 00:01:12.411
00:01:12.411 --> 00:01:14.548
00:01:14.548 --> 00:01:18.510
00:01:18.510 --> 00:01:20.707
00:01:25.980 --> 00:01:27.528
00:01:27.528 --> 00:01:29.498
00:01:29.498 --> 00:01:35.533
00:01:35.959 --> 00:01:36.781
00:01:36.781 --> 00:01:43.105
00:01:43.105 --> 00:01:48.090
00:01:48.090 --> 00:01:54.456
00:01:54.456 --> 00:01:56.123
00:01:56.123 --> 00:01:57.007
00:01:57.007 --> 00:02:06.763
00:02:08.165 --> 00:02:17.123
00:02:17.123 --> 00:02:19.170
00:02:19.170 --> 00:02:30.406
00:02:30.406 --> 00:02:36.866
00:02:36.866 --> 00:02:44.586
00:02:44.586 --> 00:02:49.548
00:02:50.330 --> 00:02:51.893
00:02:51.893 --> 00:02:52.961
00:02:52.961 --> 00:03:09.752
00:03:09.752 --> 00:03:13.963
00:03:13.963 --> 00:03:16.429
00:03:16.429 --> 00:03:20.264
00:03:20.264 --> 00:03:24.245
00:03:24.245 --> 00:03:27.305
00:03:28.007 --> 00:03:30.111
00:03:30.111 --> 00:03:37.367
00:03:37.367 --> 00:03:46.504
00:03:46.504 --> 00:03:51.401
00:03:51.401 --> 00:03:52.344
00:03:52.344 --> 00:03:56.581
00:03:56.581 --> 00:04:00.830
00:04:00.830 --> 00:04:04.966
00:04:04.966 --> 00:04:08.812
00:04:08.812 --> 00:04:18.560
00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:26.250
00:04:26.250 --> 00:04:32.625
00:04:32.625 --> 00:04:38.348
00:04:38.348 --> 00:04:42.274
00:04:42.274 --> 00:04:47.944
00:04:47.944 --> 00:04:48.887
00:04:48.887 --> 00:04:55.916
00:04:55.916 --> 00:05:01.235
00:05:01.235 --> 00:05:03.624
00:05:03.624 --> 00:05:07.567
00:05:07.567 --> 00:05:11.225
00:05:11.225 --> 00:05:12.644
00:05:12.644 --> 00:05:14.225
00:05:18.620 --> 00:05:22.528
00:05:22.528 --> 00:05:28.720
00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:33.367
00:05:33.367 --> 00:05:35.588
00:05:35.779 --> 00:05:39.930
00:05:40.130 --> 00:05:40.952
00:05:50.439 --> 00:05:53.752
00:05:53.752 --> 00:05:54.053
00:05:54.053 --> 00:05:55.720
00:05:55.720 --> 00:06:00.451
00:06:00.451 --> 00:06:02.545
00:06:02.545 --> 00:06:08.985
00:06:08.985 --> 00:06:10.288
00:06:10.288 --> 00:06:16.088
00:06:17.230 --> 00:06:24.110
00:06:24.110 --> 00:06:26.821
00:06:26.821 --> 00:06:32.694
00:06:34.420 --> 00:06:39.773
00:06:39.773 --> 00:06:46.072
00:06:46.452 --> 00:06:46.593
00:06:46.759 --> 00:06:50.750
00:06:50.750 --> 00:06:54.908
00:06:54.908 --> 00:07:06.471
00:07:06.471 --> 00:07:09.449
00:07:09.449 --> 00:07:13.230
00:07:13.230 --> 00:07:21.706
00:07:22.279 --> 00:07:38.264
00:07:38.264 --> 00:07:41.372
00:07:41.372 --> 00:07:51.334
00:07:51.334 --> 00:08:00.952
00:08:00.952 --> 00:08:07.622
00:08:09.064 --> 00:08:22.641
00:08:23.463 --> 00:08:24.687
00:08:25.108 --> 00:08:25.951
00:08:25.951 --> 00:08:27.262
00:08:27.262 --> 00:08:31.824
00:08:31.824 --> 00:08:34.711
00:08:34.711 --> 00:08:38.169
00:08:40.059 --> 00:08:42.724
00:08:42.724 --> 00:08:54.649
00:08:54.649 --> 00:09:02.333
00:09:02.333 --> 00:09:09.067
00:09:09.067 --> 00:09:13.700
00:09:13.700 --> 00:09:15.745
00:09:15.985 --> 00:09:35.046
00:09:35.046 --> 00:09:38.361
00:09:38.842 --> 00:09:39.244
00:09:40.025 --> 00:09:45.639
00:09:45.639 --> 00:09:56.168
00:09:56.168 --> 00:10:07.793
00:10:07.793 --> 00:10:08.995
00:10:09.975 --> 00:10:13.539
00:10:13.539 --> 00:10:24.846
00:10:24.846 --> 00:10:28.884
00:10:28.884 --> 00:10:31.791
00:10:31.791 --> 00:10:39.383
00:10:39.864 --> 00:11:00.866
00:11:00.866 --> 00:11:02.030
00:11:02.030 --> 00:11:03.225
00:11:03.225 --> 00:11:06.690
00:11:06.690 --> 00:11:09.595
00:11:09.595 --> 00:11:10.318
00:11:10.318 --> 00:11:13.368
00:11:13.368 --> 00:11:14.311
00:11:14.892 --> 00:11:21.424
00:11:23.086 --> 00:11:23.948
00:11:24.649 --> 00:11:34.148
00:11:34.148 --> 00:11:36.125
00:11:36.759 --> 00:11:52.109
00:11:52.109 --> 00:12:02.336
00:12:02.336 --> 00:12:08.586
00:12:08.586 --> 00:12:10.250
00:12:10.250 --> 00:12:23.701
00:12:23.761 --> 00:12:27.024
00:12:27.024 --> 00:12:29.971
00:12:29.971 --> 00:12:41.532
00:12:41.532 --> 00:12:42.783
00:12:43.423 --> 00:12:46.812
00:12:46.812 --> 00:12:50.591
00:12:50.591 --> 00:12:53.229
00:12:53.229 --> 00:12:57.169
00:12:57.169 --> 00:12:59.785
00:12:59.785 --> 00:13:02.629
00:13:02.629 --> 00:13:03.902
00:13:04.062 --> 00:13:11.131
00:13:11.131 --> 00:13:25.791
00:13:25.951 --> 00:13:39.808
00:13:39.808 --> 00:13:44.346
00:13:44.346 --> 00:13:45.571
00:13:45.571 --> 00:13:48.768
00:13:48.807 --> 00:13:56.793
00:13:56.793 --> 00:13:58.586
00:13:58.586 --> 00:14:03.787
00:14:04.379 --> 00:14:05.465
00:14:05.465 --> 00:14:28.644
00:14:28.644 --> 00:14:32.192
00:14:32.639 --> 00:14:39.724
00:14:39.724 --> 00:14:43.500
00:14:44.544 --> 00:14:46.566
00:14:46.566 --> 00:14:52.628
00:14:52.628 --> 00:14:53.951
00:14:54.760 --> 00:15:14.028
00:15:14.028 --> 00:15:16.945
00:15:16.945 --> 00:15:37.952
00:15:39.062 --> 00:15:44.788
00:15:44.788 --> 00:15:45.945
00:15:45.945 --> 00:15:50.231
00:15:50.231 --> 00:15:56.211
00:15:56.211 --> 00:16:06.158
00:16:06.158 --> 00:16:14.087
00:16:14.087 --> 00:16:15.432
00:16:15.559 --> 00:16:26.144
00:16:26.144 --> 00:16:44.945
00:16:44.945 --> 00:17:08.451
00:17:10.642 --> 00:17:12.189
00:17:12.189 --> 00:17:15.742
00:17:15.742 --> 00:17:17.867
00:17:17.867 --> 00:17:23.151
00:17:24.440 --> 00:17:26.305
00:17:26.305 --> 00:17:31.263
00:17:31.263 --> 00:17:37.083
00:17:37.083 --> 00:17:40.147
00:17:40.147 --> 00:17:46.236
00:17:46.759 --> 00:17:55.221
00:17:55.221 --> 00:17:59.171
00:17:59.171 --> 00:18:04.381
00:18:04.381 --> 00:18:09.032
00:18:09.032 --> 00:18:14.431
00:18:14.431 --> 00:18:20.833
00:18:20.833 --> 00:18:24.269
00:18:24.269 --> 00:18:31.534
00:18:32.519 --> 00:18:35.009
00:18:35.009 --> 00:18:39.602
00:18:39.622 --> 00:18:40.285
00:18:40.285 --> 00:18:46.987
00:18:46.987 --> 00:18:53.692
00:18:53.692 --> 00:18:59.912
00:18:59.912 --> 00:19:02.444
00:19:02.444 --> 00:19:10.432
00:19:10.980 --> 00:19:15.810
00:19:15.810 --> 00:19:16.452
00:19:16.452 --> 00:19:21.788
00:19:22.690 --> 00:19:26.234
00:19:26.234 --> 00:19:29.487
00:19:29.487 --> 00:19:37.123
00:19:37.123 --> 00:19:39.376
00:19:39.376 --> 00:19:45.400
00:19:45.400 --> 00:19:47.446
00:19:47.446 --> 00:19:52.785
00:19:52.785 --> 00:19:55.070
00:19:55.070 --> 00:19:56.342
00:19:56.342 --> 00:20:08.069
00:20:08.069 --> 00:20:11.325
00:20:11.325 --> 00:20:13.048
00:20:13.048 --> 00:20:19.667
00:20:19.688 --> 00:20:24.075
00:20:24.075 --> 00:20:39.480
00:20:39.480 --> 00:20:52.094
00:20:52.094 --> 00:20:58.432
00:20:58.432 --> 00:21:05.549
00:21:05.549 --> 00:21:08.887
00:21:09.569 --> 00:21:19.929
00:21:19.929 --> 00:21:23.047
00:21:23.047 --> 00:21:30.115
00:21:30.115 --> 00:21:36.800
00:21:36.800 --> 00:21:43.191
00:21:43.191 --> 00:21:45.134
00:21:45.134 --> 00:21:48.164
00:21:48.164 --> 00:21:55.569
00:21:55.569 --> 00:21:56.853
00:21:57.401 --> 00:22:01.211
00:22:01.211 --> 00:22:06.211
00:22:06.211 --> 00:22:11.893
00:22:11.893 --> 00:22:17.761
00:22:17.761 --> 00:22:23.250
00:22:23.692 --> 00:22:31.030
00:22:31.030 --> 00:22:40.642
00:22:40.642 --> 00:22:58.430
00:22:58.430 --> 00:22:59.832