I thought this may go in GQ, but I have generalized questions with multiple factual answers and even more guesses. And some of this is legal. I think this is the proper forum.
First things first: My father is a con artist. I have recently broke contact with him (again) for the hurt he’s done to my ex stepmom - the sweetest kindest most generous (and naive) person in the world.
I finally told my ex stepmom that my dad had a family (and baby!) on the side. She is devastated. She has still been paying for his health care and insurance and etc. She is broke. He claims he is, but hides everything in his business or his ex wife (or maybe current 31 year old g/fs) name. He keeps his personal liability very small.
Couple things:
[ul]
[li]She found out that a bank account with her name on it (she opened it, she’s the primary holder, he’s a secondary or something) has seen over $4m go through it in 18 months. Big deposits, then withdrawals a couple days later. I have to ask if they are several small deposits. Some are from casinos - my dad’s a big gambler - but many are just big giant ?s. She didn’t know about this because she opened this account around 2008 and didn’t realize it was being used like this. He had said, open this account and I can give you money through it. He never did. She’d forgotten about it til I told her he had some cash and houses on the side he was keeping from her.[/li]
On Monday, my dad withdrew $175k. Not wrote a check. Withdrew. Money order? Donno.
[li]HOW IN THE HELL…?! Is there some kind of tax liability? Is she going to get into trouble? Doesn’t this have to go on his tax filings? If this is gambling money, it’s income, and I saw their combined tax return a few years ago - it was only about $219k.[/li]
[li]Is it possible he’s gambling big at some casinos and…getting payouts under the radar? The money goes in and it’s gone in a week or less. What the hell? Some are direct deposits to and from Vegas casinos. Most are cash deposits.[/li]
[li]When he split with his ex ex wife (yeah), she had everything cause he kept it all in her name (to avoid paying much child support…sigh…). So the new stepmom (I’ll just call her Stepmom) used her credit to help get his new company going. Many company credit cards are still in her name. He’s using them - all the time - for gas, clothes, food, etc. If she cuts them off, he will just stop paying the balances (over $100k) and she’s liable. Yes? Can she sue him? Is she a creditor? He kept telling her (for the last 4 years) that he just needs a little bit more, just a little bit more time, need to keep his head above water, etc…[/li]
[li]How easy is it to set up offshore accounts and hide them?[/li]
[li]How many personal expenses can a company pay for? He has these LCs that cover his living expenses. Like everything. He’s in the wholesale business, so a birthday present for my son is now a “research expense”. :rolleyes:[/li]
[li]She signed the divorce papers after she got back from overseas in December. I think it’s too late to contest them. But right now, he’s still putting her in debt. Now what? Legal q here - if he lied about assets/holdings, etc., is that fraud? Perjury? She wasn’t very smart and they used the same atty to work it out amicably.[/li][/ul]
My dad is a real con artist, and a rather romantic one. She’s in so much debt now, has no house, no 401(k), nothing. He has 2 Lexuses, a Mercedez-Benz, 2 houses in CA (both owned by one of his LCs - one for him and his secret gf and baby, one for her family), etc.
I don’t know what she can recover, but I told her to get a lawyer STAT. A couple of them - one to help with the divorce issue, one to help with the finances issue.
My dad has been to jail for ‘conspiracy to commit fraud against the US government’. I know he’s money laundering as well, what with his overseas contacts & businesses. He’s a big gambler, but $4m? Some of this money is coming from Vegas. He’s known for shady under the table cash deals. What the f is he doing? And what should SHE do? She doesn’t want to spend her life in jail, but I personally think they need to send him back to Leavenworth with an oiled arsehole.
You know what she’s also so sad about? He took her dog, a stupid toy poodle I hated, and told her it died. Then he gave it to his new girlfriend.
I hate him. I’ll blackmail him if I have to. He’s supposed to pay her family back the $1m over two years and her $400k over two years. By that time, she’ll be $400k+++ in debt.
When they met, she had credit, cash, a stake in her family business, and a house on Redondo Beach. Now she lives in her sister’s house outside of LA and has returned to working as an airline attendant. And she’s broke.
I had a hunch he owned the house his cocktail waitress girlfriend lived in. Plugged in the address at the county assessor’s website, and yup, he owns that one and her brother’s house. It’s under one of his LCs. Both of which were kept from Stepmom at the divorce papers signing a month ago. <sigh> She’s a very nice but naive immigrant (I say this only because it’s a cultural thing, what’s she’s willing to put up with…) who got screwed.
PS In case you were wondering, I grew up poor. Still am.
PPS If you want to help me write a screenplay about my life, I’m all ears.