Many Alabama marriages end in court when couples determine (for any number of reasons) they no longer wish to be united. Whether the divorce process is relatively simple and benign or fraught with stress and complication depends on many factors, including how willing each spouse is to compromise and cooperate in forging an agreeable settlement. If someone refuses to play by the rules and starts doing things like hiding assets to avoid property division, things can get quite messy.

Full financial disclosure is expected when turning to the court for decisions regarding asset division in divorce. Alabama happens to be a commutative property state, meaning assets will be divided fairly, but division will not necessarily be 50/50. Unfortunately, this has led to problems for some whose spouses used online systems like Bitcoin to hide money.

This type of advanced technology allows person-to-person transactions that are identified through a numbers-based system. The system makes personal identification of a sender and/or recipient difficult to trace (although it can be done). Hiding assets that would otherwise be subject to equitable division is not only deceitful but illegal as well.

Divorce is already challenging enough in most cases without having to deal with someone who refuses to compromise or adhere to the law. Such situations often lead to emotional outbursts and embittered courtroom battles. Many in Alabama have successfully averted these types of scenes by allowing skilled attorneys to act for them in court; this type of representation typically increases the chances of obtaining an agreeable settlement.

Source: The Huffington Post, “Hiding Assets with Bitcoin in Divorce“, David Centeno, Feb. 23, 2017