MyDivorcePapers Blog

Before you delve in to the story we’re about to share, know it should be taken with a huge grain of salt. We’ll tell you why in a moment. But here’s the setup:

A 52-year-old man in Colorado Springs was in the midst of finalizing divorce papers with his wife, and decided to convert $500,000 in assets to approximately 22 pounds of gold bars. From there, he supposedly took the fortune to a dump a little at a time and got rid of it.

When asked about the action by his wife’s divorce attorney, the man, Earl Ray Jones, said, “Damn right I did.” He said the final resting place was a trash bin near a Colorado Springs motel, adding that he did it because he didn’t want his wife of 25 years to “get a penny of it.”

Problems With The Story?

Immediately, there are problems with Jones’ story. Truckers and landfill operators have not admitted to finding any of the fortune. (Then again, why would they?) Colorado Springs divorce attorney Phil Dubois, in comments to Huffington Post, professed his doubts.

“Based on normal human conduct, one would believe that it’s out there somewhere, and that he knows where it is,” he said.

While there is certainly reason to doubt Jones’ story, people going through a bitter divorce aren’t exactly the most rational. And regardless of whether it’s true, husbands often hide marital assets to keep their wives from getting anything, divorce consultant Jeffrey Landers said in a recent post for Business Insider.

Most Common Ways To Hide Assets

According to Landers, favorite practices of such husbands include the following:

• Purchasing items that could be overlooked or undervalued
• Stashing money in a safe deposit box, somewhere in the house or elsewhere
• Underreporting income on tax returns and/or financial statements
• Overpaying the IRS or creditors
• Deferring salary or delaying signature to new contracts and/or holding commissions or bonuses
• Creating phony debt by colluding with friends or family to establish phony loans or expenses
• Setting up a custodial account in the name of a child using the child’s social security number
• Transferring stock or investment accounts into the names of family members, business partners, or dummy companies

Here’s Landers’ full BI post if you’d like to know more.

Unfortunately, for spouses affected by the hiding of assets, it’s often not apparent that’s what is happening until it’s too late. And plain old vindictiveness of the kind that Jones has confessed to can sometimes outweigh one’s own desire for money. An “if I can’t have it, you can’t either” attitude erupts, and that isn’t good for anyone.

If you or your spouse have decided to file for divorce, make sure you keep it honest and realize that whatever you’re feeling now will go away when you start to focus on rebuilding your life.

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