Assets may be concealed for a number of reasons: Concealment is one of the key factors of fraud, and often, that extends to concealment of assets. Often, fraudsters use their ill-gotten gains to purchase lavish homes, cars, boats, and other assets. Ownership of these assets is often an indicator of troubles in itself: associates probably realize that the perpetrator would not have that level of wealth from legitimate means. To avoid suspicion, perpetrators often attempt to obscure ownership of those assets through the use of bogus entities, fictionalized names, or assets spread to far geographic locations.

Divorce litigation requires disclosure of the true value of all assets owned by the parties to litigation. Sometimes, however, a party may believe that they can conceal assets, or delay recognition of ownership of an asset, and thereby understate their wealth.

One type of bankruptcy fraud involves draining assets from one organization to another, leaving the debts of the organization behind. The perpetrators retain the value of the assets, while leaving the creditors with the liabilities.

Asset tracing involves understanding the true economic substance of the transactions used to move the assets, as well as identifying the location of the assets. Armed with this information, litigants and authorities may take appropriate actions to recover the value for the benefit of the rightful owner. Our professionals have worked on many cases resulting in large recoveries of assets.