Learn All About Divorce Investigations With This Case Study

Our company deals with many aspects of divorce investigations, so we have the resources to provide an end-to-end solution to our clients from serving court documents to complex asset investigations.

In this case, the client’s husband was financially sophisticated and she needed questions answered on multiple issues. We were contacted by a client who wanted not only to track down her husband, but she also needed help to find out where he worked and if he had been hiding bank accounts from her.

The case didn’t have a very solid foundation. We didn’t know where the husband lived or where he worked. Our private investigators had to start from scratch. In most divorce investigation cases, we begin by localizing the uncooperative party. So, we started digging.

Identify the location of the husband

Firstly, we ran a skip trace by utilizing a comprehensive report on the husband to try and locate a high-confidence address. Comprehensive reports are not only providing information about somebody’s whereabouts, but they also reveal the data sources and indicate the reporting date. This reporting data allows us to assign a confidence rating to the data, so we can focus our resources on information that provides us a high likelihood of leading us to the individual. For example, an address that was last reported six months ago has a lower confidence rating than an address reported during the month of the investigation. Our comprehensive reports include data accessed from various systems, like credit reporting agencies, utilities, cell phone providers, etc.

Once we managed to track down a high confidence address, we sent an investigator out to perform field surveillance. We always verify the information we get through database research with verification in the field. Our private investigator started checking out names on mailboxes and the cars in the parking lots. We ran license plates. Our field investigation verified the in information or database research gave us. From that point forward, our private investigator simply waited for our person of interest to come and go. We knew where the guy lived, so the pieces were coming together. This information provided our client’s attorney with an address for service of the divorce paperwork.

Discover the husband’s place of employment

However, we still needed to find the workplace and possible hidden assets. We started tailing the husband to locate the workplace—not an exact science, and it does come with the risk of finding out nothing concrete about the workplace. In this case, we needed to run a dedicated place of employment search because simply tailing him wasn’t leading us to a specific employer.

Our researchers who specialize in places of employment investigations determine where a person is working through various sources of information and techniques. Our team of researchers found out with a high degree of certainty where the husband worked, so we were getting closer to the information we needed for court.

Locating hidden bank accounts and financial assets*

Our next step was to conduct an asset search. We perform state-specific, national, and international bank account and brokerage account searches depending on the financial “footprint” of the person being investigated. Our asset investigators can perform real-estate searches, vehicle searches, and, if need be, forensically analyze transactions that can shed light on a person’s place of employment, such as direct payroll deposits. Our investigators also look for cash deposits to determine if the person is funneling cash “off the books.”

In this case, we focused on bank accounts and performed a national bank account search. We discovered that the husband had a joint bank account with his sister that he was using to funnel money “off the books.” We also discovered that he was doing a lot of work on the side, like home remodeling and other similar projects, for cash. As expected, he didn’t declare this joint account to the court. The wife could prove now that he was lying regarding his income and assets.

The results of the divorce investigation

Although we didn’t have a lot of information in the beginning, our private investigators put all the necessary pieces together. We tracked down the husband and his assets using a comprehensive report, surveillance, a place of employment investigation, and a bank account search. Our client’s attorney managed to build a solid case, file the necessary motions, and argue the case in our client’s favor.