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Hiding Assets With Bitcoin

bitcoinI’m all for Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency.  I use it at my local coffee bar here in Palo Alto, CA.  I go to the Bitcoin meetups. I just bought vitamins online using Bitcoin.  I accept it on my other website and maybe soon for my books.

I had a problem once and learned how to get a Bitcoin refund. (Very cool this blockchain!)  But I want to warn you: Bitcoins are an asset and expect to declare them as such in your divorce.  But most especially, be very careful that your suddenly impoverished spouse has not hidden assets in Bitcoins. I see Bitcoins as the next asset hiding place for the spouse who wants to defraud the other.

If any of you have read my book on divorce you know my spouse hid income by keeping a double set of books. I had to subpoena his clients, and compare the invoices they got to the ones he had. And to get the invoices he changed, , I had to go into the office of the home I just left when he wasn’t there, take them to the library, copy them and return before he did.  All in all, I am glad this is in my past, not my future. 7 years ago or so, Facebook was a start up not far from my house. Even then in the early days I was warning people to take down the party pics of them with a beer in their hand. Some people just didn’t understand. Same thing with Bitcoins

You may not understand them, may not like them, but they are here and they can be used to hide assets. Of course, you could learn about them, get your own Bitcoin digital account and it will be a lot less difficult for your spouse to hide if you already know about them and how they work.  I have my Bitcoin wallet linked to my bank account and only transfer a few dollars at a time. You may want to handle it differently. They are becoming more mainstream since Overstocked.com began accepting them. You can read about my experiences with Bitcoin on my website The Silicon Valley Story And please…be careful out there. I was naive. You don’t have to be!

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Ann Bradley

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